when he runs

on the other hand, looks
rather than wound in
the middle that it makes
lovely orbs of a steady
source, of holes of escape
so weeping under the storm
over and blows, listen and
something, the effect dramatic
rather than puncture, look
to gilded fruit, to dotted mold

where he hardly went

he doesn’t understand
a language because she said
with a pretty committee
he hardly wanted to come
these hosts have the same
climate, share the same
candy, take the same tests

while he speaks

seal the border, halt
for any to use to check
most would self deport
then we can turn the clock
check the box and find
five years earlier that she
also stole, that they laughed
that she might look younger
falling apart, nothing but black
in a complement to her

while he sleeps

stop tormenting of helen!
waitress and witness, meteor
shower the obstruction:
a boy with higher
resolution, be able to read
on the image and retain
what he sees to make sense
the epitaph more solid
in graphite, a water
in the night in many ways
because it was stable
and holding him back

when he is frightened

even if the page is blank
especially at night, if only
because there was anyone
able to pinpoint something
either about herself, that’s
nearly accomplishing
the way he had started to feel
fear itself let the rot spread
was built in the mirror
running through before
he anchors in the air
before his fingers curled
the sills mounted as the
original parts rebuilt

when he loses ground

after predicting the existence
after the mirror and wishes, starring
at her, when he puts a hand
over, when the talons capped
before the sound, before soaring
when precedence would cost more
than the future, when his
mother visits, before the scar
before the baptism
when they curl and
he is ready

when he feels joy

It is exactly that, but guessing.
As he can’t figure, she wouldn’t
understand. As the whiteness
stultifies, she is restored, he stares
and wishes. How he loves to watch
and knows not how. As they say,
he does not notice.

what he remembered

That he drove, as they became part.
That she gestured once she had taken
to paper. She once called
for help as he watched.
That his right ear rings, her high-
pitched apologies, her crimson
marks and razor wire. He remembered
the table in his house, what
she had taken.