down on whitebread slough reeking
of malt liquor pot roast potato flakes
canned biscuits when you lift the lid
lumpy meat a mess of frozen peas
carrots onions celery none of that sweet talk
matters cheap sour mash gin and juice beer souse
it’s all one bad gig but coin talks hope balances
with cash sketchy margins thick predation
slick flowering don’t stop to smell the roses
just git life outside teaches necessity movement
fluidity is not just form shake a leg like you own
destination settle into patience stillness of sleep
for those watched over even if its just an old dog
on a pallet speaking without nostalgia of whats gone
and never should’ve been ragged edge of rawness
chafing somewhere different day in day out slowly
learn to breathe like something not hunted
each wound reopening each daybreak learning
to live without certainties necessities a singing
of small spaces nooks and red brick palmetto
fronds for roof slowly learn that life has left you
gently behind it is a gift a different intimacy what
ever we cook is bound by that other liaison sharing
bowls if need be salt of my salt we have traveled
so far not to see through cloud and shadow night
and fog such as you eat such as you are such as you
make such as you see such as you are seen visibility
requires intent each day margins growing thinner
what flows within is what will not yield same as ever
this tide that remains unnamed slow haul of moon
slick drag line lifting us surfacing in dark waters