“on occasion”
you and i sat under ballpark lights
calling each other by the names of
constellations. tracing cracks in
one another’s palms to predict the future.
we sat and drank the night, drove out
to a place where the sky met the hills.
in antique vineyards and summer
heat we hid from your father and heard
Coltrane songs on the radio.
“your whispering”
spectrums of color fell from trees and
hurled themselves toward black soil, eager to be
buried. lovers held hands as shards of seasons
caressed the tops of their hands and feet. beauty revealed
in decaying stages; love unabashed.
“hunger”
rotting gold stalks of wheat collapsed
inward on
themselves. black raspberry kissed fingers
slowly traced the outline of scars along their
soft skin. cracked
toes followed the sanguine scent all
the way home and they held hands, laughing.
it made the blind hound walk the dust roads,
howling.
“fifty three dollars”
a miner’s son heard the whistle scream
within the summit pass. a coal smudged
vignette exhales dark
dust. on the horizon
pleas from the northern
wind and eastern
rain. green eyes to the thunderhead
that called him home ‘cross the crick
and through the thousand oaks.
a walk spent wondering who’d lay in
aching arms or fill his glass with
dime-store whiskey.
“just running home”
you smile back at faces in the
mirror. push
my fingers away from your cheek,
it was a miserable
close call. some women just file
out of their wedding
processions. if they all run for shelter
the rain may not come at all. let me
sign my name in black pen. i was
there when the car stopped at the
dead end.
"experience"
human drapery encompasses
each
pregnant moment. the subtle
curvature in knuckles and
vertebrae melt away in golden
light. elsewhere, young widows trace
aged scars without sentiment.
