Squared

The two most important square meters in life –
I wanted them to be
Inside my skin –
That crimson liquidity…
Or in a loving embrace,
Less square and more round,
Perhaps more like me.

I wanted them
Near a fireplace, perhaps,
Pictures framing the walls
A place to take root
In due time
To dig up a small square of a pit
For the hound that has passed
And a cranberry bush yet to come.

But that would be choice and creation.
The two most important square men
Chose to make me instead.

One – on the slope between blocks of apartments
Between a school and my home.
I only remember that I don’t recall,
My body showing what wording cannot.
The other – between square blocks of granite,
Between mourning lilies and funeral firs.

Other princesses share their memories
How they asked them to dance:
Elementary school, graduation, a wedding…
While my memory cannot but fail
To fathom
How surely one chose me –
The other did not.