this morning I could taste the grout
lathered between the brickworkÂ
of my breath. I was remindedÂ
of how glad I was to have seen youÂ
last night, though we do not knowÂ
each other anymore. Some weeksÂ
tone toward air trapped in a drum.
Perhaps we were not each other'sÂ
to know. I turn to the smaller pocketsÂ
of my heart, its juice againstÂ
thick internal cloth quiveringÂ
between your voice and my memory,Â
now a torn open outdoor condiment, easilyÂ
forgotten because we were laughingÂ
towards the end, unattended, at nothingÂ
that exceptional; nothing famousÂ
in the way we reflect one another’sÂ
immaculate namelessness. As if I amÂ
a crystal lip of flint just coolÂ
enough to the touch. As if you areÂ
a rich society created by a rich fireÂ
suddenly erased by a jug knocked
over. Bitter is a word to inherit for
survival. Lungs leftover make it a job Â
to be unsung. But we are out of work;
we are singing. Somewhere
I am a wide open ancient sphere
in the great seizure of many trees,Â
their leaves loyal to warm celestiality
amid caustic municipal aperture. NowhereÂ
and its animalia and ancestryÂ
and ammunition. Far away, rust reads
as chocolate; dusk—quietly
swallowing a tsunami just a few inches
below what I wished for you and you for me.Â
note:
I’m reading this Thursday at a bookstore called Page Against The Machine.
2714 East Fourth Street, Long Beach, CA 90814
6/15 @ 7PM
Hope to see you there!
See you soon! Also looking forward to you submitting a poem or prose piece to Lit Stack!