1
One could fall asleep and float

a hundred miles off course,

or rob a restaurant in broad daylight,

or weep openly on the air.
Contretemps could snap the line

that anchors date in memory,

uproot the smell of eucalypts,

or debauch a shadow from its leaf.
Mockingbirds from Texas range

no farther north than this

chill suburb in which we sit

talking of where to go in Spring.
2
Fear derives its force

from love: its own effect,

love radiates

from where I am

to where I'm not.
It amplifies, a hooded wave

racing through the dark.
3
On bare walls

the daylight rings

changes of

intensity;
everything

is on its way

to somewhere else

but walls.
Across an inland

sea of grass,

nothing stops

the sun
but cinder blocks

and cottonwood.

I wonder where

you've been.