COVER

Undisclosed Recipients

To: <undisclosed recipients>

Subject: We’re Driving Away from the Sunset

away from the accident—what you call a condition

>of the quarter inch snow film 

gone already—the rearview making an orange cloud embedded

>in the blue declivity—a skyline of slopes

>>each oak-lined house incapable of encountering

the space of what we know

>the backward moving view—the walls

>>of light encase the car

>>>in argument for distance 

for the golden precedent of wheat

>or the low fields of what’s not yet corn

>>a $750 idea slanting the dash 

on a Tuesday type of Sunday

the horizon knows how to dress up as a movie

>we try to dress ourselves up as if

>>whoever thought of love was a friend of ours

>>>somewhere out in the possible hills

you are not an island

>not in this car—not in the world

>>its pinpoint precision loosening

>>>as we zoom closer toward the map

>>>>you are here with me

in athleisure in braided pinks

>that tie close your clothes 

>>before the arrow of I-80

what does fright know of automatic

>windows—what does the wind

>>know of itself—neither I nor you

>>>could guess

you chug fluids in the passenger side

>afflicted—what or whom we take back or with us

the set and unknowable plan

To: <undisclosed recipients> 

Subject: Am I Your Bird

in bluestone below the effigy 

>this pewter light lining

>>meteorites along the belt

of high quality marble

>I mistook boulders for leftovers

>>but we’re all finding ways to shore up erosion

>>>along the effulgent lakes 

as if soft light would eat stone

>and the statue’s flared jacket in unyielding bronze

cast and uncast seems to catch the same wind

>whipping your hair and the fine wrinkles 

>>of your face into a smile before the fixed carousel

of my obvious heart 

>not everything that moves moves me

my breath slips with the cormorant

>slipping under the water’s

>>surface—thank god for cohesion for the arc

>>>the flung stick made in the air

>>>>into the lip

of the water—what we gather

>to protect the shelf of land

>>from falling into the insistent tide

>>>all these war hero sculptures

surveying the byways—that which we protect

>and that which we try to leave behind

>>some sour memory in low

>>>in full relief—the sudden eagle

flying toward me in the passenger seat of your car

>eye-level—my bird’s-eye-view

>>on that high-up bridge between the mountains

of what crosses my attention—I hope

>I don’t miss the birches 

>>in their enamel shells for the woods