Can we speak of these certain vacant spaces
in my abandoned bedroom where the moon dwells
and shuttered creatures search their teeth
for a bloom of flavor and sun.

I'm surrounded by prosaic twilights--tenantless places--
where plaster perfumed by dormant fire
gapes with cavities and empty mouths
that seek him with their tongues.

Where darkness crawls on poppy seeds
on moths and reeds and shoes
to reach me in my consternation
now that his name has fled my lungs.


Today I sewed his note to my breast pocket
but it grew crescent roots like fingernails
and murmured that we were too young.

we find ourselves as prisoners
a fact there's no denying
we have to blame, nobody else
on whom we are relying

the curtain call we all must bow
shadows of tomorrow
turn the page we know it well
the author of our sorrows

step from the path into this place
we bow our heads as we say grace
the past our present we can't erase
the future tense that we will make