Checking In: Who Are You?

Who Are You?

A unicycle at the biker rally
Steady and balanced with tongue and cheek
She’s mellow when it most matters
She’ll make you laugh when you’re feeling bleak
Now she’s got my full attention
It’s kind of hard to break it off
And if I’m only painting windows
I hope she’ll let them open up

She says, “Hello, how are you doing?”
I said, “I’m fading out of the blue
And all I really want to know is
Would you tell me who are you?”

She smiles like one on a journey
Through hard roads and mystic lands
She smiles as if there’s nothing
And listens to me as a friend
As I talk of disconnections
And of current shabby shapes
She stretches like some animal
That’s too nimble for such fates

I tell her I’d like to know her
She say’s, “I’d like to know you too
But could you answer that question?
Could you tell me who are you?”

Well the mountains are all afire
With the colors of October
They’re tacking copper to the awning
Of some new restaurant, downtown
It’s funny seeing everything changing
As if I thought it never should
But if I could have back the yesterday
Now I’m not sure that I would

I tell her I’m a local
She says, “And after whom?
Can you speak on behalf of tree or street?
Can you tell me who are you?”

Her favorite poem is The Highwayman
She recites it line for line
As we walk through the country store
And I try to think of mine
In the park we talked of actors
From Katharine Hepburn to Johnny Depp
For Halloween, I went as Chaplin
And she was a gypsy pirate

I tell her I’m a poet
She says, “That’s what you do!”
And then repeats the question:
“But tell me who are you?”

Well my pride’s hanging from the dartboard
And everybody has had a shot
With my vanity in the corner
Rolling the last dollar he’s got
But lately I’ve been so happy
Perhaps I think of her too often
But when there’s blood down on the highway
It’s nice to know you have a friend

I tell her I might love her
She says, “That’s nothing new
But between these rows of numbers
Can you tell me who are you?”

I tell her I want to love her
She says, “To want you’ll rue
Until you know the answer
And can tell me who are you”