I.


Fear.
Square infused 
paper'd tongue

Denial gives way
to high-stepping
clown-walk

Lights chased themselves
door-stops-magical
drooling-laughing-fools

Those laser-beam 
sliver-lights
piercing the motel room night

That light became me
crawled right up my leg
through skin and muscle-meat

This one moment

This spinal-strangling
sweat-beading-twitchy 
dirty-once-moment

Schoolbus-boulder on the precipice
topple to crush
or topple to climb upon

Hindsight pinnacle
lovely vantage point
looking down at once was

Fortunate was I
rolling down with that rock
on the right side of the mountain

She smiled 
that favored grace
that moment of recollection 
that could-have-been-goddamnugly-moment
that forever's-much-more-than-ever-hoped-for-moment

Fortune-for those who believe in such things,
found me
at the corner of 8th and God Street