2 Poems

We tracked the monitor lizard to the roadside,

where it was lost in the trees,

a rabbit crossed the street

a hundred yards away,

we thought we had found him,

we were disappointed.

We missed his tongue,

how it flicked away

the dust from his face

the salt on his nostrils.

We missed the hard look of his tail,

braided nickel

polished to a fine sheen,

that keen head, pointed

embedded with dark spinels,

set by a jeweler’s able hands.

I want to wrap him around my neck,

to come close to the stranglehold,

to draw attention to my collar bone,

to draw you a picture.

I love you like the lizard

we lost in the woods,

I’m basking on the rocks,

in a sunny space between the trees

and I’m waiting.

We threw our bottles off the roof,

into the neighbors pool below,

what did it matter and why?

There was nothing else to do. We could drink

until the and until the

something became so much easier

to swallow, I’m not sure what it was, though.

I thought I understood their hope,

or that somewhere, we were the same. I spoke

in short skirts and tight sweaters, what I wanted

was as little a question as I could make it.

Until the and until the

question changed, the wanting changed.

We did not stop with bottles,

we destroyed the neighbors pool,

whole buckets of roof tar

flung deftly by your strong arms,

drummer’s arms. You busied them

on destruction, I twisted my thumbs

up in my hem. I cursed and laughed

like a man. I think that night, I slept alone.