the long day...

morning to night and through the night

the light flooded

the room

came rushing

to hammer my eyes

thick and bitter bright

I have woken, constantly

have shivered--no quarter

light on the snow

light on the street

--I am blind, blind

city, city

give me shadow

let me forget

all the damned seasons

of waking

You

You--

… let us imagine two other bodies. And that my soul was the shadow of itself--and that yours was not fossilized, and pressed safely into the sediment. Let me imagine stronger shoulders--yes, and slimmer hips.

That I could carry you. That you didn’t want to be carried.

Where the street ended--I still remember. The desert night, damp and cool. The shiver that--

--rolled through the flesh and threw up the soul. I still hear you in the echo--

of my actions, the corner of my memory. I cannot hear a word, remember your voice, your face--

--surely only hands. The weight and the heat. I remember my own response. Only reactions--

--the string once struck

thrums, leaning against the chair. Long after the room was empty. And the neck was set down.

Fairfax (ii)

The car shimmering with ice
in Jackson
and the icicles
on the mirror
didn't melt until the next morning
in Dallas
and the roads gleaming
in the tail lights
like black velvet
soft and glistening
across dull dark grass

now El Paso
rises
out of the desert, and under
the foothills
and the desert rising
sparked
like cut crystal
as the sun fell

and Arizona is sharp
as a sheet of glass
pressed flat and gleaming
by the weight of the sun

before Asheville
I said
I would smear your faces
across the rolling hills
and the features fell
one by one

frozen
then flowing

snow in the Smokies
the air itself was
glass
at the edge of the mountains

froze and sank into the asphalt
I ran
over
the familiar counters
I went skidding
rumbling
over them, all night
into Mid-land

and when the oil rigs
plunged
I was empty

What is left of the fire...

--what is left of the fire
is a stream of smoke
rising, ebbing
a thousand ridges
raised
ravines twisted, degraded
a thousand ribbons
dancing

O, dancer--oh twirler
oh spinner--
my mind's eye
watching from the corner
and peering through the crowd

man, I have danced the shadow
of the dance across these walls
I have stomped and slid through
winter
I have bowed to fall
in spring, I flung
myself forward
in summer
I bent forward, I wove slowly
to the beat of the sun
and did it all once more
lost more than I won

man, I have whirled past
my very last partner
--the dance now done

shall I...

shall I feed you, the ghost of
grapes, coated with dust
sing you the shadow of the light
glimmering heavy in the haze
the ghost of the roses
burning white against the dusk
walk before you
one more time
to where the moon
hangs bright over the rocks
and turn
hands out-stretched
give you mountains
seamed with stars