Phantom Life

Evening teeters on a palm
You find me in the kitchen
Our friends out on the lawn
You leave me
The words you couldn’t keep
A promise to be back soon
To visit in the spring
Your self-deceit
My disbelief
Well, they’re the same
Oakland
Rattles in a trunk
Wilts the lily transplant
Ghostly in the dusk
We leave it
Carefully unnamed
Tender in your music
Gilded by the bay
A phantom life is everlasting
And your ride, it’s outside