the poems on this page:


< after you left >
< only enough time >
< shopping for groceries >
< the refrigerator >
< wanting to be gardens >

< waiting for you >
< bare leg >
< a picture of you >
< simple >
< old gardens >

-------------------------------


    

    < after you left >
    
    
    blue
    me and one of my socks
    
    green
    the other sock
    
    yellow
    the stamp on the letter
    
    orange
    i ate it
    
    red
    the tomatoes i'm cutting up
    for my salad
    
    orange
    the sun right now
    
    yellow
    the stamp on the letter again
    
    green
    but i'm learning
    
    blue
    the blue cheese dressing and me
    
                - - -




         < only enough time >

        for a few quick words

               - - -




       < shopping for groceries >
    
    Don't go to the store hungry my mom 
    says but i'm hungry so i clean out 
    the fridge first looking for something 
    to eat but there's this bottle of wine
    i opened a few weeks ago but we went 
    out to eat instead so it's full and 
    probably going bad i tell myself so 
    i drink a glass of it and then it's 
    empty and i'm the only one home but i'm 
    not home i'm shopping for groceries 
    listening to dylan muzak and taking a 
    bit too long deciding which washing 
    detergent coupon to use and talking 
    to the produce guys making jokes about 
    the heads of cabbage that i don't 
    understand but they're laughing.
    
               - - - 




       < the refrigerator >
        
        but you
        are reading this now
        and as each word
        coasts 
        through the air
        directly 
        into your eye
        
        you 
        
        who had hoped 
        when you started this
        had hoped 
        like opening the door
        had hoped 
        like looking 
        into 
        the refrigerator
        
            - - -
        


    
             < wanting to be gardens >
            
            we
            had wanted to be
            gardens
            filled with flowers and bees
            industrious
            fitting into this world
            at the joyful places
            the bright connections
            
                     - - -
            



         < waiting for you >
    
    i'm sitting in a bus station

    it's 1969 and i'm waiting for you
    
    our bus left 2 hours ago
    
    i'm still waiting for you
    
               - - -




    < bare leg >
    
    one bare leg 
    runs up 
    just far enough
    some hair
    shows
    just enough to know  
    we 
    are like our cousins 
    making nests in the trees
    just in time
    for night
    
         - - -
    



      < a picture of you >
    
    old music sits 
    across the room from me
    refusing to reach my ears
    and the hole the quiet makes
    becomes
    a picture of you 
    
              - - -




           < simple >

  Unrequited longing is difficult 
  stuff for me and of course i 
  cry at about every stupid film 
  i see and lots of other people 
  do too cause we are all trying 
  to get something back and grieving 
  cause we can't and we are all 
  comforted by words that prove 
  that somebody else out there is 
  in the same place too.

             - - -




           < old gardens >
        
        old gardens with flowers
        filled with flowers
        in old gardens
        the flowers 
        are the ones that come back
        and old gardens tend 
        to be tended by hands
        made older by the sun
        made brown like the leaves
        the old leaves in old gardens
        old gardens which tend
        to be tended 
        by old hands
         
                - - -

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