Like the rainstorm that I will not allow
to escape from between my fingers
The child is an animal
not explained by its parents
I want to stop traveling south
I want to live without loss, or to live more thoroughly within it
In an ankle-deep loss
I begin to swell and am so tired
I cannot see even a small woman in the firelight
It’s late We get lower
We’re all covered in blankets and
the child says my voice is funny
He means it’s changed
I can’t tell if it’s him or if it’s me
Who knows nothing at all about change
His life is like watching a good movie
with a friend
who is seeing it for the first time
It’s howling in a place
where the air is very thick
but we can’t decide
if it’s harder to breathe
I tried to call you
but it was the middle of the night
The phones were asleep
the rabbits were asleep too
And since the rabbits weren’t doing
anything noteworthy
really I didn’t have much to say
except that I had recently realized
it would be impossible for me to swim
the sweet deep length of you
I could never do it
and since we both love shortcomings
that was some something
we might have enjoyed
I was in a real body
that anything could happen to
was what the chili in my food reminded me
bringing as it did my blood
up hot against my skin
God loves a meal
now as he once loved
to see an eye
come loose from its socket
when battle was honor
So if I dreamt of a hot mint tea
that would take its hour to task
I did so out of frustration with
the difficult redness of it all
The snow
that fell and fell and never stayed
