perfection darted out of reach,
rested away from my fingers
like a wild bird might,
and knew that it was being pursued
but also that it was beautiful
it preened before me,
kept a watchful eye
for any eager movements
fanning out its feathers at the indication
of any slight relocation of interest
Montana remained invisible
at the end of the summer
hovering like a punctuation mark
shut like a closed eye, but
round and blue with lakes
and milky iris clouds
behind my closed eyes,
I manifest hills, the feeling of rolling
a direction that has no name
only the shift of landscape
like knees beneath a skirt
trapped in a tired frame
behind the dirty windows of a car
I�ll return to this other home
a different grounding place
away from my safety of ocean
and endless rain
and fluorescent lighting
into a straight arrow shoot:
the bloodless wound of glaciers and canyons
of meadows where you can briefly glimpse
what the terrain really looks like
perfect remained smooth,
white, egg-shaped
a return to the beginnings
stillness in the fluttering sheets
of movement
and noise
and heartstrings
a motionless fish, floating in its bowl
the only occupation available
is sleeper
dreaming back to when
life might have been chaotic
but it was poetic
carefully folded paper
with its grey angles and planes
the fortitude of its strong form
the planes of arranged geometries
couldn�t move past understandable
and never made it to unfathomable
irreversible, or lyrical
listen:
the locking parts unhinge
surrender,
from linear to slightly sweeping
na�ve curlicues
someone might write about
two long bodies
lying spent and glowing
hot roses under all that translucent skin
flushed
with the sweetness of being empty
but we were like two balloons
full of static electricity
coming to rest against the wall
the air crackling, all fiber standing on end
nothing empty
the two of us so full
coming up against clarity
like moths against a screen
when I lay awake, you did too
not fading quietly like the others
back into the bed
back into the sheets, crumpling
and then smoothing themselves out
stretching that long-limbed sigh
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