cowboys (excerpt)

two cowboys are sitting on a stone bench

the little one orange and yellow and red
the big one bone-brown and tired

it is April in the park and crazy-blue noon

silence grows in the trees

little cowboy kicks a boot at the air
says are you angry Ivan

a walker swishes past in her zippers

dogs call out unnamable needs

and the invisible stars rising
falling

When You Were Water

Icicles hid in the hard night that wasn’t quite yet.
I’d been hanging in the tree four days already.
In a dream, the house slid under the mud
then into the river: We change our minds.
Become rain on the face of the sky where
trees hide their heads in the cold dark,
replacing the dream of drowning
with a long, leaf-ticked shadow.
Which turns to ice, falls.
And there you are.

moments I

Perfect Spot

Pins on the eaves of the stone church. (You are tiny in your forgiveness.) A row of teeth on a standpipe, or a nice low ledge.

Don’t stay here – not, go away forever.

Regret, at Night

A falling leaf casts a shadow that looks, for a moment, like something running away from me.

4th of July

“Me & Steve & Dragon rode down to Red Hook to see if we could get into my old apartment… which we could.”

Bad Kids

They sneak home at 8:30 a.m., smiling. Sheepish sheep of the afternoon high.

They laugh quietly, tap on the windows.

There are three of them, one more than there should be.

Phenomenon

Any time is strange but this one. The wind you cannot see.

You can’t imagine August 2008. Try. You can’t.

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