The odor of stale hotdogs coils / around this truck stop of quiet men / who sit with faces bowed, bath kits / in laps, fair-like tickets in hand.

Prism vase, asters blue as glacier ice, / baskets of strawberries, croissants, / goblets lit with orange juice, / & the cathedral distant, the boat house / flying its flag in an international zone

Then there he is again— / the Suit of Lights, all / epaulets and reluctant pink and gold, / back in the ring.

The chrome-colored clouds / pushed the heat down, held in the car fumes, / the smell of the asphalt. Out on the patio, / I was ready for work

There is something about traveling home that stops the blood. / My womb becomes a howling dog warning me of danger.

Here, there, the way silence / tows you below the waterline / and though you are alone / you’re not sure where her name / is floating on the surface / or what’s left

She hasn’t taken off her swimsuit all summer. She is two hands / across her middle. I know that from throwing her: one foot / on my thigh, the other in my palm. Up, over, splash.

Among students, I drink the same / coffee I drank at home an hour / ago—which is not some philosophical metaphor.

If I could go back, / I would have clutched my tongue, / not let it pirouette into / the soft, dim spotlight of / your living room

Once I entered into a symbiotic relationship with a praying mantis, wings folded / at our altar of Queen Anne’s lace. There is wine on the table—father, please don’t / let the calf bleed on me.