Curl

It gets me out,that metal sound,I levitate over the sidewalkfor the three blocksI must cross to make itover here. Everyday a smoke cloudforms around the barrelof the forty fiveI empty in the sideof the old school houselong abandonedby the district.We have both been heremany times before. It’s been a long timebut I remember allthe little […]

Belmont Beach

A white truck waits on gravelunder orange streetlightwhile a black dog licksthe moon reflected insome little stream,and insects screamrejoicing in the heat. Muddy footprintslead to water downwhere fish bitealmost anythingand throttles echooutward fromthe gaps betweenthe dying trees,now faded green. Bullfrogs call for loverswhile white moths climbover tree bark too afraidto fly all caught upin this […]

Mend

The weeds wave so politely at me,sunglasses between my eyes,and them and this whole landscapewe remain in for the moment now.She shakes me awake in the red lightof the morning and I start my old carunder gray moon and a dark bluestretch of sky. The world uses me correctlythese last few monthskeeping me far outin […]

Melancholy Music

The wild guyat the end of the blockspent his life savings assemblinga massive pipe organinto the fabric of his home. It looked like crystalline steelwith stone around it like the insideof a cave, and boy it played.It rang out over miles of suburbanland and sometimes evenedges of the city. Everyone turned on him,and his melancholy […]

The Real Thing

We drive over the lusterof old accidentsavoiding all the sharp partsif we can.The fire in her feels likenew leather on my finger tips.The fire in me chills her likea frosted glass aroundgold beer almostdimmer than the bar. Stain glass cathedralwindows draw her eyesfrom where our windowopens letting windrush in and makeall kind of noise. She […]

One For Free

A tree grows aloneand dangles its branchesover a pond.This scene existsin every earthly cornerbut all this lonesomebark cannot collectsomewhereinto a forest of its own. It wouldn’t want toif it could. The sunlightand the simple shoregive up everythingthey have to itfor free. It’s also whereshe likes to readafter walking overwith her stack of books,she alternates between.When […]

Bottle Rain

Duct tape on a fridge handlekeeps it hanging on for ages.File cabinets full of people’s namesshake and whisperwhen there’s nobody around. A string of towns, all no morethan eight miles apart,exchange flesh and bloodbetween them and itsustains them throughthe decades into centuries. No more nights out in the numbinglights and bottle rain,those days will not […]