Torrent

Out here as storms go
it typically only rains harder.
The cars slide by in shallow water,
while the morning moon
stays hidden in the sky.

Any Other Summer

The road out of the neighborhood
narrows from people parking in the street.
Newspapers rot in news slots
or on the soaking wet corners of driveways.
I’m too bored with the noise
and the light in my screen
to believe anything.

Stay Close

I pay for cigarettes
with a plastic bag full of change
on our first night together,
and what a miracle,
she doesn’t mind at all.
I smoke one
on the short walk through
the courtyard path where
gargoyles make faces
in the grass.

Recital

A vandal broke into the high school
orchestra room after dark
at the end of the semester.
Whoever it was left only splinters
and coils of metal cord
scattered around the chamber.
A few crushed beer cans also
stood among the wreckage
surprising none of the police
or shaken faculty.

Backtrack

I’m not walking all that way,
back to the bent tree
where I left behind
my jacket.

Mercy

The bad dreams ring louder
like annoying late night cable ads.
A faceless old man
with a rusted rake sliding it
across the metal walls
of a work shed.

Departure

Girls in white shirts sip on colorful drinks on the wooden deck over the street.