Dust

I remember places we went together. Sunshine in the cold air, sitting beside you on bales of
hay, reading my book while you slept. Sweet-warm winds came rolling up to meet us, like kids
laughing up a hill. When you awoke it was like a whole new day beginning. Running through fields,
the long grass sweeping at the skin on my legs. Making circles around gatherings of trees, birch trees
covered with white bark and green leaves that glittered in the light. Scrambling up to the top of a grass-covered hill and down the other side as fast as we could go, arms outstretched like we were flying.
“Come on,” you shouted, laughing, every time we reached the bottom. Up we climbed again, over the
peak, until I leapt in the air and stumbled, surprised at the fluttering of white pain in my ankle,
unsteady. You helped me up, your eyes alight with the wind and your heartbeat.

We headed for home where I lay next to you, curled into your lap, where you stayed all
evening as the sun ushered the night into the living room. You carried me nearly two miles, my head
twisted into the smell of your hair. You who seemed so big back then, who now would reach only to
the top of my forehead, should we find ourselves, somehow, standing side by side.

Umbrella

I'm coming up from a cloud
You said one more, why not --
I'll catch everything that falls

I'm too hollow to be proud
You said hold on, it gets better
And other words to round me out.

He dragged her there to here
Never touched a thing
The diver waiting to dive
From the brink, ecstatic

I'm digging into the ground
You said why so overdone, fond lover
I liked you better from over there
Where the screaming wind was a sight to see
But nothing much to feel.

Hide and seek

Once they got stuck in the underbrush
Red berries crushed into their hands
Who knows what under their fingernails
They had to slither to get in.

Before that, they were running
Rinsing the surprise from their faces
Scrambling for ways to go faster
One too small to keep up

Saturday morning in the crawl space
Could barely hear the rage from down the hall
Breath quickening, heart unravelling
Trying and trying to be quiet and still.

The apartment down the street

The last time we met was the time we started counting
You, so sure of your addition
I watched you place bills on the countertop
Apologizing one by one

When the pipes burst we turned on the oven
Sat on the kitchen floor, played Crazy Eights,
Found things lost in the freezer
Waited for the thaw.

We put the cards away at a quarter past three
Closed the oven door, thought about ways to be warm.
I watched you tape my keys to the countertop
Locking all the windows
Pulling the blinds until there was nothing to see,
Nothing to make plans around

Nothing but to add up our time,
Agonizing one by one
While we waited for the thaw.

January

We need to start a fire.
Let's pool our intentions,
Count up our matches,
Lose track of how to survive.

If you stand just so, the fire burns redder
Fueling excuses
Striking up reasons
Desperate for all the ways you can let yourself down.

All the live long day

The kids on the bus go round and round
Round and round and round and round.
Wasting not the scenery
Wringing out their hands
Undo all their sound.

The suits on the bus go round and round
Round and round and round.
All along the freeway
Twisting through downtown
To count the hours down.

The girl on the bus goes round and round
Round and round.
Remarks on her forehead
Tattoos up her sleeve
Daylight run aground.

Clawing at the scenery
Crawling up the glass
Round and round and round.

Cara

At the family reunion.
I've cut my hair to look just so,
Not sure why it matters.
No drunk uncles passed out in corners
Here everyone stands up straight, side by side
Quick now, form a line
We're all sure it matters.

There's someone I'm trying to remember
Something I was supposed to bring.
When you ask me how things are going
Aren't I impressive when I nod my head, smile that smile with my eyes on the ground.

I'm twisted into this easy shape
Standing straight up, rotting in line
Trying to shake what matters
Before it eats me from inside

Come the sun

So fine, let's pretend
I'll put on this jacket with the logo on the sleeve
You can ask me questions and I'll map out some ideas
Prettied up to look like imagination.

Okay, let's be patient
We're here because we want to be
I'll hold my breath a little longer
Here because I tried.

Wait for the morning, everyone says
Things look better then.
But then comes the sun
Warm on my skin
Sharpening its teeth:
Trying to get in.

Dawson Creek

The sky is on fire
That late afternoon light swallows you whole
Burning up birch trees

In the sudden city they chase dogs down the cul de sac
Carving tunnels into snow, spies lost in nighttime suburbs
Forgetting their way home and all the reasons they should hurry.

In the morning I stand on the sidewalk
Cold, underestimated
Waiting for the fire to come again