POEM
I walked to the riverbank
with hell in my left hand
like a snake’s head in
your brother’s tall boot
telling you to double the knots
like a belly
full of whispers
like a wingbone
we cast spells like
bronze in a
radio’s
hot sun
clumsied smile and clumsied
wet petals
*****
POEM FOR LAURA
the woods pool around you
and you cry the way you wash sand from your ankles
you carve yourself from it
then we have some bourbon
to wet down the mast
we wait, listen for the hand and the wind with no fold
no trap door to the bottom
where we wait for the dead to dress themselves
are their fingers thick enough to hold you?
your hands are cold
and the last pull comes out like dust when the bottle breaks
I remember when I found you
in the curtains where a rainbow pawed
this is when the spring begins to touch you
now the spring begins to touch you
