George W made a painting & painted his toes pink
Like the meat I eat
& the color of my baby’s penis.

I walked in the door, took off my coat, took off my sunglasses, set them down with my keys, took off my shoes and socks, my jeans, my shirt, my bra and underwear, set them all on the chair by the door

The Ponte Vecchio was built
For butcher shops.
The river stitched with bridges

We began to meet there
On the mops.
After school, during the siesta,

gul   any flower gul   a candle’s tongue

That day in winter: the rows
of shabby cages, stacked
like death-camp bunk beds,
in which tiger kittens gamboled,

Love, here we stand at the beginning
of our life together, and I find myself
thinking of a hot summer night

You could see windstorms and a piece of floating string
making their way to the school
for hours—you could watch the sun,

Smoking a dart, I said.
I just met my first bird.

I know you, smaller than Circumference
Of Bone—smaller than Orbit—than Silver

Flask in Pocket—more delicate than Mints