Love And Landscape
Don’t ask us how we crossed the saltwater marsh
Grasses were high and easy under foot
The last stream was spanned by a driftwood plank
Thrown carefully into the muck
I didn’t sink and you didn’t sink
And when we came to ocean
Skittering of sandpipers
You held your dress and walked into the spray
Us
Between Ives and Messiaen you move and I move with you. In one more stupid mall with cheap price CDs and three hundred Sunday shoppers all with the same behavioral instincts, what’s to look at? The ceiling is more curious, all suspended with some panels complete, some open straight up to the no man’s land of steel trusses and cheapness. I know when it rains it rains in the book section, and wouldn’t you know? A leak in the roof still to be found. Before we leave with our fix of CDs Carson wants to take me back into the book section to show me where he sits each time we come right in front of a rack of comic books and he often brings real books to this chair. Now I know where to find him. I remind him this is the best way to use this place — read for hours on a rainy day respectful of the merchandise but don’t buy a thing. How I move with you is standing still, not even thinking of much; will it be a CD Ives or Messiaen juggling prices, and in green cotton dress between racks you hesitate in its alphabetical organization, tight waist and hips curve, a freshly and very fuckable look between us.
Neighborly
During the big snowstorm
that lasted almost a full week
three feet of snow and plenty of
kerosene lamps used
two horses broke loose from
somewhere, though we have a
good idea where, but first Sweet-
heart had to be surprised by the
two at the door as she turned
and how she couldn’t help but
see how one was bleeding at the
eye and the other seemingly wasted
so she took them back through the
deep snow to the road where all
things, even those you can’t afford
to love, come and go
The Reflex
One must understand
I hug my love every day
as the world gets worse
and worse and worse
I hug her many times
in a day
I smell her hair, feel
her waist, and even
look out a window
but I hug her
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BOB ARNOLD
I'm In Love With You
Who Is In Love With Me
Longhouse 2012
