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It Happened One Night

(1934 American black & white romantic comedy by Frank Capra)

which was really a week

of falling asleep

on a stranger’s lapel,

and the white satin

that went on forever

like a cigarette

that never sets fire

to the hay we sleep in.

It happened one night like

drunk reporters talking

into two phones at once,

like borrowed pajamas

and a donut dunked in coffee

early morning at the auto camp.

It happened one night but was never grim,

not the man tied to the tree

nor the man running in fear for his children

nor the recommended daily

sock to the mouth for her.

We barely felt it.

The autogyro was always ridiculous.

We run away

with the runaway bride

and we couldn’t be happier

from Poetry Northwest 10.1 Summer & Fall 2015More by Sierra Nelson from the library

Copyright © Sierra Nelson
Used with the permission of the author
on behalf of Poetry Northwest.

Published in Poems Sierra Nelson

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.