I will go out into the world
feel everything
come home
reverberate in silence

do it all again tomorrow.

(why not?
it is a poetic place to be)

I think I was here in a past life as a whale
I saw it happen
the cleaving, millions later, the taking
I might have been there
when pangaea heaved herself out
this coastline, primordial
designed to be passed through,
remembered
lest we get bored and forget about
all the stolen land

rare Romantic sublime
lapis, aquamarine, sapphire
all at bat with black cliffs

you must digest it all quickly
say you have been
long to return
but maybe not.

i was too immobilized
to dance with you

now

I want to smash it all
your life, your religion
and swirl the pieces around
in the atmosphere
materialize them
back in front of me
hold them
in my hand.

Heads up
at gilded cielos and ceilings
a time when extravagance was bilious
and public.

relics and
the coronation of Napoleon
sublime impositions and plaster,
some marble. Gobs of it.

Oils and linens
of faces, faces.
How could we remember it all
in hallways and corners
and monstrous great rooms?

my gut feels like
it's back in Ohio  

my sister remembers when
(no, don't bring it up again)

there was a dog and and he had a gun
and I would always be the one
to run toward things
when I should have hidden

about twelve shots of tequila in him
and a rifle wobbling
and my sisters sobbing
he pulls my hair to teach me a lesson

I pull them all in my
little purple Hyundai  
and drive away

I like getting lost in the rhythm I can
turn
you over and over in my
head like feet
like pulling a wagon behind me
chained to my hips I run I
am away but I can
drag you close