Courting Disaster

Buff Whitman-Bradley

She answers the door in a sweatshirt and torn jeans

While you are wearing your finest Italian suit

She doesn’t remember your date until you remind her

Of your conversation outside the intensive care unit

And all the bouquets you’ve sent her since then

Oh she says wait here I’ll just be a couple of minutes

You thumb through magazines on the coffee table

When you smell the sprigs of lilac in the blue vase

You can’t quite place the memories that come

You walk around the room looking at framed pictures

Of someone who looks almost exactly like you

And you wonder if it’s possible you have a lost brother

You hear loud noises coming from upstairs

Doors slamming objects crashing to the floor glass breaking

Goddamn motherfucking son of  a bitch she shouts

Oh shit shit shit and you begin to wonder whether

This might not have been such a good idea after all

And whether you’ll ever get it right

Could you come up here please she calls to you

And as you mount the steps you smell smoke

And see tongues of flame curling out from under her door

Help me she cries you try to open the door but it’s stuck

So you rush downstairs to the phone and dial 911

And within two minutes the fire department arrives

When they carry her from her room she is unconscious

A firefighter performs rescue breathing and when she comes to

With his mouth on hers they immediately fall in love

They are married two weeks later and invite you to the wedding

But you have something else to do that day

And besides you hardly know them and would feel out of place

 

Six months later she calls you to say that her marriage

Is not working out that she was foolish to fall in love

With her rescuer they have nothing in common besides

The fact that he saved her life and she’s been thinking about you

Would you like to come by for a drink and although you’d planned

To go bowling with friends you say sure I’ll be right over