1)

it had been daylight

the whole time

squinting at the cormorants

in the park across the street

retirees

calling for their dogs

gig workers stomping out cherries

by the pond

it had been easier

to go to joy

when I believed it was a rebuttal

that there was a last word

that it was “again” or “regardless”

you had snored from the next room

did you have to dream?

seizures bald newly 33

the mail slot click

the dog sighs

your wife tells me how

to hold you for the last time

the meadowlark singing

to the blue beetle-kill rangeland

the future falls all around from no hand

waiting for the phone call

2)

still a workday, our persistent dust

the bells of our bodies that won’t be unrung

the water repeats itself

the faucet the warm rain the sinkhole the

river touching my knees

touching the Tetons touching the gulf

becomes the rain I know I know

we are starstuff and stone and strewn

but today I just wish

somebody here had known you

there is love

there is oblivion

two eyes staring through each other

3)

pronghorns server farms funerals

chasing sprite cans your brother

spilled in the road

all the flights arrived that morning

remembering together

under the Lincoln marquee

the time you were lowered

into the hot spring

incisions and ribcage

heaving in the steam

your friends got out first and

could not lift you

you shrugged “guess I’ll die in here”

from the fresh damp dark

of oblivion’s tongue

this obligatory curse of the circumstance

is dumb

what could be a better reason

than to buckle and laugh

under the auger of the day

squinting

arm in arm

wondering what to say