BoltI draw the bolt, you jimmy the lock
I yank the shades, you tap at the glass
I'm shut against you like a fort
But you seep through, your foot-
Prints multiplying overnight
Spreading over the carpet like a dew
Devouring mist
You're in the air I breathe
Every Relationship EarthriseThe bulb flashes
We are nude
In the most important photograph ever taken
Frozen in time
Before the mirror of the void
Glass eyes are breaking
The aperture opens
Shutter flaps flutter out light
GreenpointYou don't want to hurt anyone
You don't want to burden anyone
You just want to disappear
You're an honest-to-god alcoholic
Waking up again in Beth Israel
You left your mother's ashes
In his apartment
Many Jewels Surround The CrownSaturday, May 15th
The mercury is plunging
Your clothes stay on
Down the double helix staircase
Purple and blue lights
Split into icicles
It will freeze tonight
Only we make eye contact
Memory RepeatingI woke up today
Not to trains
But to the mowing of a lawn
I woke up not to you
But only me alone
Things are different here
It's hard to believe
Only hours ago
Nihil Obstat"I Give Myself To Mary"
O MARY
CONCEIVED WITHOUT SIN
PRAY FOR US
SWEET HEART OF MARY
BE MY SALVATION
REMEMBER I AM YOURS
Shoulders of SummerstonesI held a ceremony for you
I burned some of your hair
It stank like charred grain
And never left the room
Floating up the the ceiling
Hanging around
The way a slave haunts a tree
Or a miscarriage haunts a marriage
Troubled SleepNightmare fumes around my face like camphor in a sac.
Your shoes are open graves I stumble on.
your socks, dead birds to gather up.
This is the bottleneck. With every breath
I draw, the rings
constrict. beside me in the bed
you're like a third rail, rigid with current.
I listen to your mutterings, sort through the gibberish