A small tree leans against a wall. The windows, frozen over
lakes. There is no sky. Day and night.
Somewhere, grief is a place
no one is dying from. Heavy organ music. A cathedral, hymning the half-dark.
If you know anything, it is that a child dies at least once
in childhood.
You remember snow. Its quiet. How no one came.
How time can make small that which is no longer small.
Still. Imagine it is just another night. A cocktail and a cigarette in hand. A friend
saying, take care, before putting on a coat and getting in a cab. The snow, flitting
under streetlights. The moon laid across the lake by the park.
Imagine a life that you wanted to be yours. How you asked
to deserve it. Blue oars. A boat on a lake clear as harm.
Imagine some forever no one has named
heaven. Where loneliness is a mask
one is forgiven when it is taken off.
The last thing said or not said. Its sudden importance.
And all is blue. Day and night.
And all is blue. Day and night.