I wish in these hours of tendon, bone, salt
the erratic jump of machine’s tracing
with heart’s beat
Lub dub lub dub lub dub
I wish you could pour down the sulci
of my constant inside talk like summer rain
in the seconds before it all stops—
Leave me with the slow drip of one
last word from lilac bushes
faintly purple on the roadside
Teach me how to slow the beating
of not good enough and what if
and the more more more
Let me sit with you on the side of this lake
where the air tastes like fish
and water ripples with my toes
Watch the sailboats make their last circle
as the loons sing feathered wisdom
to the fading light
