Campus twilight chases the pinkest of airplanes
Across sunset pinched sky
February is making up its mind to March
I am making up my mind to loneliness
I will put the college age feminist cuff in my Levis
And swear you off
Swear you into oblivion
Kissing off this dusky breeze
Jump into liquid night
The 10 minute homeward stride
To lighted windows
Uphill to age 20

We could all shed tears
For a 17th year beating a hasty retreat
But we don’t
We’ll pillage the future
Before it even cracks a smile
Such are the years of inbetween

The bay is subsumed
By almost thunderstorm
Heather and slate
The sun shines on the pale city
The city shines white
Across the bay
And the ferryboats
Bright dots
Disappear in the devouring rain
Soft from where I stand
But there are spots of light
That play on the hills
And the water
And the land enfolds the bay
Nestling the city on either side
It is beautiful as if from above
And a plane crosses the sky
The churning clouds, white and blue
And vanishes behind the gray

Walking through winter with an orange in my pocket
Impaled with a gasp
By the whitest of mornings
I have fully left midnight
Velveteen and drunken
Tangled all in the branches behind
Gone away and I am glad
This is not cowardice
Creeping like death in the cold
It is a wind-stung
Cautiousness
Natural when so brand new