I’d love to see Chicago

this is your favorite photo you say
and pull out of the box a moment of you

taken outside the Chicago library
your church rising in the background

columns of concrete
forming a colossus

and I wish for a moment to possess
the ability to crawl inside the image

take your hand and go for a walk along path
which lead up the stairs, counting each one

placing our palms reverently against the oak
and releasing decades of words

in a cloud of pulpy musk, aging leather
and dried bookbinding glue

but instead I reach out, take the photo
hold this relic carefully and say

“It looks beautiful in the fall.
Maybe we can visit sometime.”