- the hand on my duffle bag doesn't shake
- but oh bearded woman, i am like you
- your voice isn't ashamed of itself on the bus
- march is coming in like a gentle wolf,
- it will go out like a tamed lion
- you shout i have no slaves
to help me!
- i can't write a letter!
-
- tonight i have no child at home
- tonight i left the cat with my friend
- he struggled in the mover's truck with a coat over his head
- he was under the steps in the dark
- he came out when i spoke to him, but not all the way
-
- it's snowing. you want to get off the bus
- hit the ditch, hit the ditch for me you yell
- see he's hit the ditch for me, he's a good sonofabitch
- you get off, you throw a snowball after us
-
- i come home to my house where i'm camped like a hobo
- arrive like a traveller and stumble at the door
- here are all my empty rooms in the dark
- where will i sleep, in a familiar or an unfamiliar room
- i build a fire and i put on my new clothes
- i visit each of my rooms, which were never mine
- they are all white in the dark, the snow shines into them
- stairwell, bathroom, corridor,
- bedrooms with mattresses leaning against the walls
-
- we haven't forgotten to leave our testimonies
- on the wall above the heating vent Luke drew a house
- and a boat with its anchor dropped among the food splashes and the
wavering air
- five avocado seeds all of them swollen
- are left to take their chance with the new tenants
-
- house. custodian of rooms, plants, cat, i think
of your future
- but no, you are your own creature
- how highup i slept in your periscope
- were you our bones?
- tonight in your great snow-eyed vacancy
- we are thrilled simply
- how strange to be alive
- how strange to be alive
- the furnace motor stops and starts itself
- the fire makes a red light and it moves
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