she was a short one
getting fat and she had once been
beautiful and
she drank the wine
she drank the wine in bed and

the flesh covers the bone
and they put a mind
in there and
sometimes a soul,
and the women break

a woman, a
tire that’s flat, a
disease, a
desire: fears in front of you,
fears that hold so still

he was 65, his wife was 66, had
Alzheimer’s disease.
he had cancer of the
mouth.
there were

I reached up into the top of the c
and took out a pair of blue pantie
and showed them to her and
asked “are these yours?”

we have everything and we have not
and some men do it in churches
and some men do it by tearing butt
in half
and some men do it in Palm Spring

at the track today,
Father’s Day,
each paid admission was
entitled to a wallet
and each contained a

this one teaches
that one lives with his mother
and that one is supported by a red
with the brain of a gnat.
this one takes speed and has been

It’s never quite right, he said, t
the way the music sounds, the way
written.
It’s never quite right, he said, a
taught, all the loves we chase, al

lonely as a dry and used orchard
spread over the earth
for use and surrender.
shot down like an ex—pug selling
dailies on the corner.