Let me begin by saying I
find you incredibly frustrating.
(This line will be removed
in later iterations of the poem,
but will ultimately return
because it is accurate,
though not true. I’m still
deciding). So many things
said and each phrase
untethered or tenuous.
What if I aspired to the
same dense offhandedness?
Nibbling at the edges of
something bigger
than poetry, less than
poeisis, when
I would wish to dine.
A passage of some sort and
this is the vessel we are
building.
Did you know that poet
means maker?
Seeing your collages
helped me see your poetry,
though not more clearly.
I’m tired of chasing after
your strays, picking up their shit in little plastic bags.
They say you were a
beautiful singer.
Well, okay – that’s not
true, but I could believe that
you were enthusiastic. Your
guests brought wine to the banquet
and drank it all, too. I
hear tell there was a lovely burgundy.
Go ahead. The seats aren’t
assigned. And weren’t you invited? Please join us.
Don’t be alarmed. We have
always been this drunk and disorderly.
But not really. There was
that time you spilled your drink on your date
and there was no going back
at that point.
There must be a way to
navigate this but I haven’t the map.
I turned left when you
should have turned right. You are my true north.
Everything is better with
Rosario Dawson.
I keep turning left when I
should be turning
right. Whose failure?
And what’s with all the
birds? Shivering, delicate wings. All
hummingbirds will fit in the
palm of your hand. Even a small child’s hand.
When reading one of your
poems, we sing together.
I try listening to the
parts. I really do.
I try listening to the
parts, how the tone shifts
and glistens like rain on
the road at night as the lights reach onward,
onward.
Once more the lash. How one
faces the storm. Whether
it bruises or braces. If I
might take your hand. Let’s agree
to disagree with a firm
handshake.
Sentences keep running
akimbo, unleashed. Language
angles in and you choose
whether to bend the knee.
One must ever decide how one
surrenders.
I suppose it’s time.
