Vetralla, Lazio
Donkeys stir in the last mist.
A glass jar each,
Federico and I hike through hazelnuts
to where the yellow flowers
flock amidst Etruscan tombs.
Singing soft Frank Ocean
as a grace, I wind
my wrists through grass.
Blooms smear pollen
where my fingers fold.
Federico's hand unfurls
on my back to brace me
when I climb, too high perhaps,
to pick the final few.
After Eirin Moure
Finally! a thunderstorm this afternoon
The sky careening down to the high far apartment buildings on HaMeshachrerim
as if to topple them over
As if Iron Dome
Let a few through
And the rockets fell in a torrent
The thunder of belated sirens screaming as they fell,
The rain rained down from the close sky,
Burst dark on the cracked dirt alleys between our train building
and the next. . .
When lightning shook the air
And startled the street cats’ searching
Like being awoken in the night by one’s beloved booming WAKE UP, RUN,
Who knows why – perhaps because the sky was close –
I invoked, in words, my friend Grace
As if I could reach her, just like that. . .
And, speaking to Grace,
I felt myself a falser friend
than I’d ever dreamed of
Felt myself coddled lifebound on Yoel HaShofet
Having spent my year
Full of unrelated turmoils,
Having wishes, and doubts about wishes,
Like she once had therapy and lowercase text messages. . .
There are some things that refuse to be felt all at once.
Oh, to be able to tell her about the skies that remain in this world.
for Joe & Sufjan
Outside the theater we stared,
my friend and I.
My face swept
blank, the swift freeze of where I’d cried.
Ears rung, as though through
a snow globe or a diving bell
he told me he had worried he’d seize
at the screaming lights of the last song.
We’re all gonna die.
And I had thought the exact same,
and told him so. We laughed.
I did not tell him
I thought I would never write, sing,
touch again. Or never stop.
Though, knowing him
I was not the only one
smiling through it.
He told me once that his face always
ached from laughing
after he saw me.
So did mine. I’m sorry.
It was always a relief
to be alone again.
