2005

HOUSE MADE DOWN

Remember this, from computers past?
I likened the starlight
To what we pieced together
From the maelstrom of urgent warnings.

You stretched out
And I was grateful for consciousness,
That your shaking out the lactic acid
Could set my chemicals in motion

Despite everything in waking life
Blinking like a dashboard light,
Or rather because --
"Everybody's got a bomb, we could all die

Any day!" And we took as much time
To locate what I'll call
"Our contact lenses"
As we felt like. You felt like

A young animal. I feel like
A malted. I feel, when we're together,
Which really ought to be all the time,
That the long run in which everyone

Understands is actually imminent,
Not decades off, not made of foam pellets
Or requiring UPC symbols
Or the final class upheaval.

Come here, now,
Let's rocket offstage
And if we're not oblivious
To the awkwardness around us

We will be.




[This poem was funded in part by a grant from Drew Gardner]