NEXT TIME

Next time, I'll bring you flowers.

Next time, I won't mention your mother

or my mother

or your mother-in-law.

Next time, I'll have on-hand whipped cream

- not cold cream � which really isn't the same thing at all.

- Next time, I'll kiss you first

and hard

and often.

Next time, I will scream out proper poems of devotion

of thanks, of appreciation, of the holiness of them moment.

Next time, I shall BE in the moment

not floating above it

head in clouds

dick in limbo

libido somehow stupidly on vacation in the Mediterranean.

Next time, I won't be so stupid.

Next time, I won't be a jerk.

Next time, I won't be a screw-up.

Next time, I'm gonna set things right.

Assuming, of course, that you permit a next time.