Memory

If you could just remember
How to play.
Let’s see,
You’ve got the dealer

Who is you,
And the entire deck
Upside down
On the cardboard box,

The alleyway
With its manhole steam.
Homeless all around,
And you flip
A queen, a king,

Other face cards,
To make a match.
It would be a child’s
Game if it wasn’t

So long, going late
Into the night
After the town’s asleep,
You under a street light

Marking the cards,
Trying to make a pair,
Trying to recall who
Goes with who.