From "Long Night"

So much had been lost. Memories, feelings, desires were packed away, buried down in the closed compartments inside him. Like the cities to the east, buried in ash with nothing left that was soft or pink or human. Just this, survival and the vague perplexity at his own existence. He didn't know what he wanted, but suddenly her eyes were before him, gleaming white, she was all smooth fire sparking against the night. He wanted to take her and fill her with everything he had, to say every word he knew and every word that had ever been, but she already had them all. Albatross, alacrity, temerity tuxedo murky volunteer the the a it she. Her. It was all inside her already and it would never be destroyed. He kissed her. "Shit" she said. Grammar, indigo, hurricane, her. He started to kiss her again, but stopped, tried to apologize.
"It's terribly cliche," she said, so close to him now.
"There aren't any other cliches left on Earth" he replied, and her peal of laughter fell like shining beads onto dark pavement. They rolled into him, lodged inside him and he pressed his face to hers and tried to remember everything.

Upon Waking, July 21, 2006

Sick and fevered
I dreamt of you
sitting at a cafeteria table,
two books in one hand.
It is how I know you best.
As I sat down with my tray
you began to argue, good-natured stubbornness.
The dream ended.
I lay still for a moment
recollecting reality
and wondered
what you had been doing
as
I
woke.

Teacher's Beau

Perhaps a century ago
we could not be seen together:
young man and schoolteacher.
Decorum reigns in your proper carriage, but
the sight of us would have scandalized young eyes.

This afternoon you surprise me, waiting at the door.
I fly to you,
open my mouth to laugh,
wave at my students
as you escort me home.

Eagan, we own the streets

It is so good to get drunk with you,
to roam the town
and laugh without stopping.