collocated smoke on chattering streets
where I dream I could have married a cloudless gal

unlike currency that keeps me on my toes—

in our difference we still say
"I've tried to stay awake—

go to sleep with the same diligence.”

here prayers claimed a winter
where no one understands the known
Pocahontas

in front of me is a woman
claiming her innermost thoughts sitting
with absence—reading a balcony.

She'll see struggling, incepting, going blind on
chlorpromazine; others—the IRS

She says right now someone is shaking loose
their science, stuffing the night—

that doesn't make sculpture less alive
or playing pool at Pliny's home, eating corn.

yes, writing checks reminds me of 39/6 parsley
do you know—1986 has another hanging

my favorite hanging of me . . .