i thought you were gone / stupid bird / darling worms shifting in the mud / this time i am not so
certain / is it kinship or are you gloating? / have i grown bitter with the bees / how they bring the
blooms reliably? / i could barely bare the beauty / of my lover when the sun pressed its fingers / into
the doors of her pupils & so i surely cannot / bare to imagine her now that she is gone / yet my
neighbor’s irises are in season & i remain alone / the warmth has returned to my skin like a familiar
palm wrapped along my forearms / teasing ghosts / there is nothing romantic about any of this / the
sparrows are dastard with their crooning / their beaks like scythes/ the vines relentless in their
unraveling / over the brick that want only to be bare / one man’s beauty becomes another’s brutal
architecture / no there is nothing / romantic about a crowded 5th avenue / how it pours eventually
into Washington Square Park / elbows threatening to kiss one another / like ships in a swarmed
harbor / Lillian Vernon married & knew best to keep her last name / & inside her once home i
mourn & watch / the green do what i cannot / the petals of the daffodil grow & pull open & then
they remain / despite time / despite the knives juking in the wind / why does the spell end where
my own bones begin? / just like that landscape come back / despite death / its place on the mantle &
its victory in the distance / what was once still is granted motion / & again i am dark / with my envy
as life unfolds / its arms & taunts / death with its favorite song / for now / lover / i am going to ruin
you