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Daphne Gottlieb / Poem



Nocturnal Missions

She woke us up, said the neighbors.
She rang our bell like an alarm until
we yelled out the window. The small,
dark-haired woman said
she was your girlfriend.

I am surprised, to
say the least. At the time,
I was at my tall,
blonde girlfriend's house
wrapped in her blonde arms
inside her tall bed.

She rang and she yelled and
my neighbors did not let her in.

Did she
say my name? No,
said the neighbors. She only
said she was the girlfriend
of the woman who lives
in apartment 1.

I concede
she was probably lost
or drunk or crazy
or trying to rob me blind,
but what if?
What if she wasn't? This is what
wakes me up, as surely
as a wrong number: What if
she came by
because my windows
looked lonely? What if she
came by just to call me
darling? When I wasn't home,
she came by with
a love so big,
it woke up the neighbors.


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