Directions to your College Dorm

Directions to Your College Dorm by

All hallways still lead to that room

with its ceiling so high it might have been

a sky, and your metal bed by the window,

and your crate of books. First,

you must walk across the deep

winter campus to find your friend

throwing snowballs that float

for years. Then, open our letters:

shelves of words. You will find

our coats, our awkwardness, the tickets

from the trains that witnessed

our confusion. Love was the place

where we became as naked

as morning; it was dangerous and

dappled and we visited its shores

with suitcases and maps from childhood.

I remember our shadows growing

on your wall while a candle

swallowed itself. You kept a single

glass of water on a desk and it trembled

whenever we danced.