Coat Check

We could meet in the parking lot

Of the Circle Cinema; the coffee

Shop has tasty tarts and comfy

Couches for us to share. Stir my

Cream in mystic spirals—recall

Steam over winter grates, clouds

Like meringue toasted in sun fall,

We were women in long clothes,

Ornamental metals chained around

our necks. In the second it takes to

Spin I have fallen in love with your

Chin and how your laughs sound.

Brown leaves as frozen as green

Buds in glaze, the season wheels

Like a drunken cinematographer

Who tries to tell what kisses mean.

National Auto

The dealership by the highway

Never takes down the fleet flag

In its floodlights and flash,

Though, because of another

Meaningless American massacre,

It is at half-staff.  

     Past midnight

In a winter storm, hail and freezing

Rain, the seams have come un-

Done among the strips.

   A body

Of blue, the stars freeze silver.

Red ribbons and white bandages

Like tentacles coil the harpoon pole.

How fast can you drive on ice?

How far?

Reflection in Difference

My chiral lover from long ago

Don’t make me sad. Say, “told

You so.” I think I do not want

To know, or impose once more.

Peripheral to lives we’ve lived

Apart and still a part of today,

I could grab your hand and find

It warm. I missed your wave

From the window as I drove

Away into the rain, the night,

Drove away from this time.