Jaime's for April 1st and April 2nd!

{I Will Make No Apologies for the Brief Affair I Had with Your Sister}

In caritas, obligato.
When her hair came down,
her hair came down.
The back bare refrain
of two shoulder blades,
one poised an octave
above the other
shaping the sound
lady plovers make
to hike up the tide
when no one is looking,
when the guests have gone home.
The ocean tasted like
the back of her neck
when the black Scylla
of her hair drew
me under.

*

{Get to Know Your Dead}
—for Jack, Esq.

Down in the earth
where the salt pipers clear their throats
you find them.
You, Havisham,
buried in your wedding dress.
You, General,
calmed by your silence.
You, innocent.
You, baby, taken in blankets,
taken in sleep.

Yesterday was your last morning.
Did you watch like a cat
that hollow spin of birds change direction,
deciding upon a season?

Jack pats with the bully of his shovel
the soft earth
made softer by the renewal
of its trance.
This is hard work.
He sweats,
drinks ice tea from a carton,
is alive.

Yesterday was your last morning.
Did you feel the sun crescent your face,
as in winter, you grew
a longer night
to protect yourself
from a light now cold?

Jack is leaning on your stone.
He is quick to remove your daughter’s
flowers turned sour.
This tune he sings as he works
reminds him of another life.
One he left behind.
One like yours.

Yesterday was your last morning.
Did your weight feel somber on the bed,
on your shifting bare feet
and stretch this length of
uncertain paradise upon
every object you touched?

Jack, grown fond of his work,
buried something in himself:
"Good-bye, Lover" tattooed
inside the shallow of his lower lip.
Maybe it belongs to someone else
or is his to share
with the whiskey in his flask
at the end of the day.

Yesterday was your last morning.

Tomorrow Jack will wake up.
Gravity makes his job tiresome.
Sometimes he thinks
it’s you below, pulling.
He’ll stop to wipe his brow,
watch above
those birds fold flight into each other
with graceful confusion.
He sees them every morning
and wonders where they are going.