did you feel it though?

 when the backs of your teeth were numb and

sparkling? when Paul Simon sang we all shall be received

in Graceland? when the river clouds grazed the land like the cows

in Kansas? the gas station toothbrushes

liquor store baseball caps blown out railroad bridges

blackbirds murmurating over the semis

the burning bottomland the dives with no dancing

you were told no matter what make sure whoever is stuffing your parachute isn’t

wasted the man in a captain’s hat holding the rim

of a trashcan with both hands like he was steering the ship of Memphis

the devil in a red dress and wire framed glasses

getting into her Uber outside the bar

the blue rooms where we held each other

snow geese over Atlanta at night like a lot of loosed gossamer

I woke up crying you woke up screaming

both of us reticently ripped into our lives

two beach front promises at the edge of an evaporating reservoir

it’s so hard to want everything I don’t know if I ever will again