Solar Divide

for CC

whatever the form of the vessel

whatever makes you long and long

and covered with mirrors, everything half

ear-marked or smudged with citrus

tell me more about your inner side walls

whatever my glance at you, companion star

more southward, more delicate separation

you told me what to sing

I can promise you the singing happened

I move from a thing gone, embarrassed

by my own planking footfalls, my singing crossings

I watch floes from the edges dismembered

evidence that “light too is being stretched”

I am always awake, tired but alive

tubes pumping under the floor of my bedroom

hot letters inked with a calm

we stand no chance, do we

have you seen Jupiter lately

is how we talk to ourselves

here where the infinite

becomes its own container

in this I emerge too

Savannah

for ACH and CC

These machinations had been steadfast and touching,

had been missing us for how long now? So I’m writing

them again to you, all that is eroded and riddled

by our valley full of tornadoes. Something we would call

upheaval in batches. The great blink between riverbeds.

I’m just assuming this cache of friendship, cheered-on

pancakes and surprise Carole King tunes on the ukulele.

These acres we’ve fixed, magnolias I’ve missed but counted

anyway. I am not that whale with the wrong song, carving

out some space between my bellow and someone else’s.

I can feel the word triggering happening. I can notice

a barge in the wind already becoming fond of us.

What now. I can doubt again and again. To forget you

I first need to remember you. I’m just carrying out

someone’s unrealistic expectations, why I couldn’t

be brave here why I’m starting to replace the purge

with screaming sunlight. We are the best family,

the strongest wooden prow. These bloody marys

have salt on the rim that I’ve never considered before.

You surround yourself with microwave facts and blind spots.

I am going to get this splinter out with a bulldozer.