James B. Nicola

You see

You see,
that day was a beaded curtain
to a back room
where you could not go
not then
not then.

Though I had been 
you hadn’t
and I wasn’t about to drag you
nor leave you there in the front room without me
not then.

All I could do was tell you
that that’s where I’d like to go
with you with you
and let you think about it awhile
so that maybe you’ll take my hand
or touch my robe
like Scrooge to Christmas Now

and we’ll go
together
to the dark back room
one day
and fly
like The Present
and see clearer
all through the night.

James B. Nicola has previously published in 2River, Cortland Review, Tar River, Texas Review, and elsewhere. His book Playing the Audience won a Choice Award, and he has also won the Dana Literary and Storyteller People's Choice awards for poetry.