Upside


the wedding ceremony 
ended in a gift 
of geodes 

is it on-
anism		
to quote 
one’s self-
talk back to it

the many ways 
a hand gets tried on

in snowdrift, or 
the soft-light riptide 
the tourist “hearts”

*

writing begets a new 
	    permission
       ask me what's next 
I’ll come down from this 	
     false sky
                 pollen lake	        pollen shoes 	   
     pollen weather
			 cloud, neck-
		 level	 immunity 

*


he said I had to prove why condescension
was inherently bad			               I did not

	     spray-paint that snail
						   to carry on with
colors and days and the last apothecary trans-
       formation	

		    alcoholic 
		      	  heartbeat     
 
	     “In no way is this philosophy sexual”
imposition 	 lines	
	     the habits of the face 
					as morning
       preps its garment
 	     one 		more 
		     lycra assemblage	
			  spreads un-solitary
       each new loss 
				 a stone

*


evening, hour 
of the dog, day 
of the child
year of the fox-
tail, cattails 
of the green
pond delegation
spread 
the docks 
dismemberment 
and then the pigeon’s
three-pronged
touch 

*



touch is a nail that bounces off of
the guests eventually arrive in
no corridors were sealed off from
inside the house an instrument of
delivers whose anger is directed at
delectable red frills around
sleep the obvious combs with
tables some bright children speak of
other attributes put on for
leverage the saccharine “toward”