Venture Forth Capitalists - Excerpt from Love and Quarters by Gabriel Ricard

VENTURE FORTH CAPITALISTS
from LOVE AND QUARTERS
BY GABRIEL RICARD

We don’t get the benefit of ghosts
pushing the hotdog carts down the street.
 
The horrified drivers of every car that’s stuck
in the standstill remain glued to their selfish perception
and remain fixed on the future of the summertime.
 
No one locks their doors,
and since the sirens only exist in dimming speculation,
they all sound like a nauseating banquet
of Frank Sinatra songs.
I don’t ask for permission to squeeze your hand.
Sorry about that.
 
I’m distracted by who is leading who
to what is hopefully a livelier dance
in the new museum of the jewelry, Nokia tablets,
and winter coats district.
 
I’m in love with fifteen minutes ago,
and I’m a dreamy word problem
about how attentive I am to the little bookstore
that’s leaving us behind.
 
Am I the only one who’s going to look back
at its open door,
imagine what the breeze felt like
from the stool behind the cash register,
and wish that we were actually almost at the edge
of one postcard in a single file of tens of thousands?
 
If you’re not feeling that kind of thing,
it’s okay.
We’re probably going to have to grow up
in different ways.

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