–from a billboard on I-65 South
They say what nourishes us also destroys us like the dozen dried up
insects I found in a ring around the light bulb I envy them for knowing
what I don’t which is how to give love freely without saving some
in an envelope tucked in the back of my sock drawer just in case just in case
I am never able to be open with you here are the facts of the situation
as I see it 1) you are very pretty 2) there is a little kid inside of me
worrying you are too pretty 3) this world I have never been able
to hold at quite the right angle 4) my life means no more than the lazy
downswing of a Louisiana cow’s tail as we drive by it 5) this provides a kind of
comfort I went from a pain in the ass to a pretty word you said that
to me in the car and no one else will know what it means which maybe
makes me seem cryptic but even that, I think—turning off the egocentric
desire to connect to strangers if it means remembering you more clearly
—is a kind of heaven.