published in Exploded Assembly
(Sow's Ear 2019 Chapbook Competition winning chapbook)
I don't want to talk about what we have lost, I am not sure
there is a difference between prayer and conversation
anymore, why anything happens, why thinking
is suddenly like this breathless occupied midnight.
Out back where the clouds skim the black surface
of the pond, it's as if we called them, and now
you are saying, Look, the whole flock is here.
Snorting, nickering, they drift, white boats on a moonless tide,
making and breaking engagements on a night when everything
gets decided. It is time to sleep, but who can sleep?
The water could not be blacker. We watch them,
lights off in the house, window slid wide,
standing on the great divide where the mind
is always leaving the body behind.
