under a down swept sun, we are as strangers
to our molecules to atoms formed
in the hearts of stars and supernovae     we run
in long wavelengths through Sundays
along highways behind the rain � these occasions
stun me with their fast gracelessness, tangle civilities
as night tangles the leaves      best we navigate
the beat of the sea the book of its shoals
best we raid the pantry cupboard for tins
of crabmeat and sardines    we�d bellycrawl
through rows of our kitchen garden, pluck at a purpling
patch of chives, unburden Burpee's Big Girl
of her heavy reddened fruit     these things
all these things for a meal of permanance
an unquiet night on wind-dried sheets


�2007 by PJ Nights