Elisa Gabbert & Kathleen Rooney

You've been invited or at least informed to/of

my Sadie Hawkins Dance for the Misinformed. 

The way you know you're fond of someone

is when ripples in the pond spell your names 

& every song on the radio is telling your story

& every song has a happy ending, or else a fade

to the shimmering black of the past. Allegories

are like commercials for how we act like animals 

in love. Also, there are images: an old piano, 

a broken mirror glittering the sidewalk,

a steel-blue knife & a Catherine Wheel.

Is this your real life? Will you ever know

which things are symbols, what they mean?
Good luck w/ that. I'll be spiking the punch.