is water

beholden
whatever piece of
history
you point to
I
still can’t
read you writing

get a new phone
now just
about every year

live
like a human
in a tree
a spider
in a rumson mansion

here’s
a photo
of Jersey City
and the Atlantic
ocean

it’s new
like a kitten

wondering who
won art
prize

wonder
who will be
the next president
the next poet
the next in
line

maybe the
the Internet
knows

maybe not

the future
is
here while
you
struggled
with slavery
domestic violence
and
a car
without
a steering wheel

championing a
broken system
passes a law
makes thinking
a felony
a prison on every block
armed babies
waiting
to overthrow
this

lacking obedience
reclaimed idealism
resetting your will
a brain
as god drives
a bobcat
takes off her helmet
finds a cigarette
to smoke

may we all arrive

prays for the past
imagine’s
someplace special
specific
completely incompetent
withholding empathy
relaxes in the comfort
of contradiction

one world
all it ever was
a globe
drifting
in mind and space
looking
for astronauts

would fall in love
with
ice cream and candy
the woman on the moon
the rocket
that brought me here
to escape gravity

threw it up
it didn’t come down
drank
from an empty glass
used a hose for ideas
remained strapped
to a chair with a reading light
was set
just unprepared

for your love

to tell you this
when you called
don’t need the chill anymore
bought a sweater
a thick coat
and a memory of the past
now
ready for tomorrow
wherever that leads
the way I feel about you
you will never
know