Misplaced

Owl is the spirit of a next-door neighbor who overdosed

owl is a portent of death, there to witness

Collect

A story that exists retold and retold never written

gained life on its own when it met you

a poltergeist, it’s the essence that survived

its horror its significance its warning

it surprised me that we were all surprised, in a way

I was and wasn’t, knew the pit we spoke about up in Harlem

and before the silence, before my phone rang after 3 pm

from our friend who wasn’t a friend longer,

I only thought about my words which weren’t enough

and the last time I saw you, partied out

Thinking, how we got so far from best

the you that held and the me that listened and wished

How did we end up talking about a car crash?

I wanted often that part of me gone

Life might be easier, or that’s the way we know brings reward

any other is a heavy gift

The nights I longed to lie in the arms of the masks I wear

but I remember instead, or I used to

Now it comes, the live memory

in junk moon tears and sun-stroked rides

up a downhill and thunder without

I love a waterfall between here and there,

in out who gives

Everything near, grief!