Brew

I
ask
for more coffee,

for
more
chances to swallow

the
memory
of your nostrils—

wide,
just
beginning to wake

up
to
the thick smell.

Coffee
helps
me to remember

our
quiet
cinema of kissing.

You
say
yes to it.




Living Alone

Make the contents
of each closet known.
Search behind still
-unpacked boxes and turn
knobs against misgivings.

Close yourself in
your bedroom and place
your palm flat to the door.
Lift the phone, replace and kneel
beneath the interrupted bed. Inspect

the shadow of the broken
box spring. Shake the sheets
and slide your red, wet hands
inside each unmatched pillowcase.
Lie beneath your covers and submit. Pray

this paranoia doesn't bite.




Message in a Bottle Thrown Off a Boat Between Nantucket
and Cape Cod in 1979 Washes Up in Ireland 21 Years Later

Dear Traitor
or Friend,

You are my only
hope for escape. I spoke
with God and He, too, blames
me for the rape. He listened
to the "confession," that tape,
and will prod me with His rod

even if I get out

of this scrape. So it's full-
throttle toward a further-out island
where I'll pick grapes or work
as a waiter, serve scrod or shape
myself into some woman's second
husband. Please contact Jean-Marie
McQuinn at 222 Erie Street, Cambridge
Mass. and tell her I left her for her
sake.

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