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