YWP

Things sound different at midnight,

the dark is so much lighter,

The noises so much louder,

Every creak causes a jump,

Every movement causes a flinch,

We didn't know the guy

in the truck

who's that guy?

my sister asked,

and I wondered if city people

expected to know everyone

they saw around town.

Love

Is like light

Is like a rose

Growing from the darkened depths

Of a blackened bramble

Climbing through the soil

With shadowed claws,

the air tastes like honey and promise 

sticky with the scent of blooming jasmine 

and freshly cut grass that crunches beneath bare feet 

the sky drips blue 

stretching wider every afternoon 

I got home from work at nine o’clock and decided that I would go down, through the gate, across the creek–socks mushy all of a sudden in my Adidas sneakers–and into the meadow for a walk without stopping to see anyone.

I'm six on the living room floor -

the pink album the pink album I chant -

dad puts the Supremes on the record player, the jacket handed to me -

pink, with three of the most beautiful women I've ever seen -