mississippi

haft headed i shan’t dance, decked.
o’ jolly, she battle hymns of unmarked graves,
prairie college dunce for more medicine, to cure,
to leave & come back, knows
where they bury them all. ‘in hell,’ she says.
barge sail by arm toward the south, rising
down beneath the gulf of mexico’s,
where earth, pools her words,
pelican belly gathering in hattiesburg,
& siphons the sludge of your somber prayers
say:
dream to me in drawl, boy,
wandering beyond moon or tide, sulfur stench in the sky,
& i will take you with me, again, ‘to hell,’ she says.
tip-toe from the mouth, through & through.


american wildlife

peaking when we pine
porous as the wind leaves,
needles we drink until we poke.
restless on the edge of indian statue,
he points
at the wine inside us, abandoning
broken body on the plains
near the caged bison, caribou. wandering.
they whisper into our ears
with their thick whiskered tongues,
but we cannot understand their words.
only the cud grinding
& the pant of boredom, where the flies
feast on manna in each eye, beast to naming beast,
reflecting the disaster inside us;
a swelling thing easily ignored.


after

he comes out of the room, one room the other wasn’t in,
with a towel around his neck
& his hair slicked back, looking ghastly ill.
he comes
dark rings around the eyes,
& the other sits on the sofa, but doesn’t
look up,
pouring a drink into a glass. slow.
inside something is changing their minds.
he hears the ice move, but keeps walking towards it.


the basic horn

whimpers in white, louder than song,
but you disagree, listening
in the darkness as the cat cries, & cries
& we never know when to say:
do not do this
or just do this, “scram,”.
left or right,
correcting my neckline, strangling tie, loosely drawn
so the loop of thigh echoes by nipple, down arm,
agreeing to clench at the same time
claw clinging to all the furniture
we bought together, flea markets, something, etc.,
before everything is blown,
again this is louder than we can hold between
small apartment walls,
out of proportion a second too late
knocking on the unlatched door
to find me there.