Another State

We went to Akron for a second

to set up drawers for thoughts we left back home.

How could we construct a day

without the corduroys of our youth?

How could we arrange the afternoon

without developing theories about how we got here and why.

Tell me about your papier mâché hotels,

and the way you scroll through life

with evenings on your side.

You are to me as the Triangle is to me.

As the west proclaims its industry to the north.

Green Squares

In the middle of a serenade the clouds burst into tears. They are soldiers in the scene where

folding chairs live. Have you been to Nevada? Are there satellite globes along the road? Take

me to the furniture store, and I will show you red chairs that belong elsewhere. And what if

the serifs share evenings with the president. Do they wear blue to combine content with

admiration? Do they place jars on the page? I gave you Arkansas when you were afternoon.

You began sentences with “hi” and “true.” In the medium photographic unit of this state, it’s

the anthems that keep us going.

Flour Merchant

Goodbye, little soldier, tell me later what you see as you fall into the chamber. Are your

gloves attached to the sleeves of your coat? Do you run through the planisphere gasping for

air? When will you deem it necessary to admire a day like today: your mouth full of clouds.

Your general regard for our forefathers: a brick placed in a basket of bricks. For who can

admire the nascent space industry when the pharmacist keeps calling you Dave? You admire

the lion brigade and the advancements they’ve made. You are austere like a folding chair.

You are bold like a skylark.

Declare Yourself a Garden

You destroyed the lampshade when you entered the room. Who talks to you most when your

hair is wet from drowning? You have set aside this corner of the atmosphere. You think about

congressional meetings, Mozart, a television falling from the sky. All this to say: reveal the secret!

Document the pain. Wipe those tears that stain the rug. Find yourself figuratively demeaning: your

hat on your sleeve, your crown on your boot, olives hanging from your brow. Would I but glance

in your direction: fractions would be conquered in my mind.