Boundaries

Land’s cove
crumbs of stone
lines from the
landing

trace perimeter

Surroundings
of water
define the
water, specify
the water.

Cup on the table
a lake down the way
edges are the fences
from which names
arise, define the manner

of drinking
of fording
of wading
of swimming
or drowning

for lack of attention
to shore’s definition.

Driving with Duncan

His elastic mind
truly proposes a way

to go is
circular
circuitous

gently,
as a tree’s
aging spins a
round line

outward
outward

ripples etched
coming centrally

and this is our progression.

News

I can still see
us you and
me on Eddy St.

away from the
river
drinking
drinking
that insipid
lemonade.

Pigeon with Broken Foot

We’re not doing well
having, formerly,
free of mar
flown,
landed—
press press
contacting pavement,
slight hustle
quick to
again to
flight.

Now: poverty,
maimed while requiring
strength, as all the time.

The others,
no scathes
chase us,
and they are despicable
fucks
harrowing the damaged
which in the them, latent
too will wreck.

Sketch: Tennessee Dawn

hanging over
the Holston

moon
still there
at dawn
after
evening
dawn
tucked in
mountains

over the Holston
River

Sketch: Haywood St.(Then Shall Break)

Elm trees
widows of
elm leaves

I cannot now remember
how earlier in the year
this street appeared

when a marriage held
together—bough to bud,
blooms, show of natural

actual togetherness then.
Separate, we separate
only from an old formation.

“And then shall your light...
“And then shall your light...
“And then shall your light...
“And then shall your light...

“break.”

Ah, Sam

take the carried foods.
eat the carried foods.
canteen, burlap, prickles…
me suddenly become
cowboy type
can grin despite
there’s no cows
spurs, other regalia,
even a horse at all—
except by a measurement
inclusive of ache,
the distance and span
of the trip made
to disperse or
accept through use
the lonesome ember.

Cardinals

Should you, waking,
sweater on and in socks
at the sink for water
see a cardinal in snowed

bush, you live in Carolina.
The fortune is fact
of residence—attention
occurring, unfocused.

You want to be some
brightness in thickets
and you are red, red
cardinal.

Anything remaining
in there, thicket of
twig poplar, business
fences, flecking of

snow, smear from
wiped fog on glass?
The red, crimson
cannot be affected,

or dyed in.
Character,
purest function
impels one to be

black and red
brindle-beaked,
sit among pallor,
berry of a holly tree.

Personism

Nana Mary
can I carry
the apples

single ones ripe
too much or pale
they’ll turn, will
turn.

It’s you now

or not at all

because it’s us!

The Demons

Needles in the water
or a path of rough dirt
in the mind, hewn
to a vacant swath
where droves of mites
panic amid shard-ground

that the flesh of hands
asking dirt to smooth
grate to a stubble bleeding
more mites that gnaw
until body and ground
sift indiscriminate
and the afternoon seems
very long.

Must be True

Indoors, some unattended
place to kneel moan or ask,

Deleuth, or Topeka, Brockton,
Missoula, Tacoma, Plymouth,

an ample organ brays.
I hope it will stop soon.

“M”

for Brandon Shimoda

When place occurs,
belief sleeps,
knowledgeable.
Choice followed
or fought afeared
properly sets one
on a stool
in Montana.

Yes, a ragged seat,
under a roof,
talk, then music,
furnishings,
drink’s ice tart
noticed in that
very order.

Plainly, to tell full—
dreams, although revelatory
populated similarly odorous,
transpire by particular
breathing, drool,
moves among blankets

sedentary. Then,
awoken, expiration—
a hill top, suddenly,

not the room remembered,
various dear pursuits wanted
for eternal engagement, but

“all of Missoula” spread
ahead; not expected,
therefore entrusted

with the failure
actualized, premonitions
shuttled down and

down
phrased differently is
an end to what could
but will not eventually

quilt this as hoped.
Admire the corpse.
The worst turns.
Eyes from sleep pried

separate one torn
and another torn,
leaving these tassels,
lashes to comb they
keep the dust from.

Wind increases, movement also
follows and when less the moving
does too, peaked or on the ground.