which, of my long lost loves?

1.

before the rooster crows

I wonder if those who

knew me in life will deny me

three times like the Nazarene

prophesied to Peter.

and it doesn't take much effort

to recall the scenario my

junior high school sweetheart

laid on me before third period

in the sweltering stainless steel cafeteria:

who was it she trapped on the roof

of the burning house that fateful day?

oh, yes. my mother, my father,

and the sweetheart herself, strategically placed.

she asked: “who would you save first, then second

and who would you leave on the smoldering roof

to burn in a most agonizing death?”

she didn’t make it easy.

sassy girl.

look at that sweater.

she knows exactly what she’s doing, peeling

pleated paper beyond the stump of her cupcake

in the manner of a slow, devilish pantomime.

go ahead. tell her what she wants to hear.

I advise myself: singe your mother to permanent

disfiguration, and burn your father to an eternal crisp.

she leaves little choice but to bend to her will,–– but

in the fatal backdraft smeared with the scent of Ivory soap,

she scampered-off in anger to Home Economics.

ahh, the lithe Azorean beauty, Anna-Maria Bento Souza,

that foxy kale-haired olive!

I left her to burn on the smoldering roof;

the roof, I should say, of her own making!

2.

so, that's clear. now, let’s see...

who else is on the three-time denial list,–– and

beyond them,... how many others?