Dream, philosophy, of the little
Hudson Valley town of Cold
Spring (there’s an unexpected place)

Then I was younger and between towns
where people waited for me to sell them
either Styrofoam cups or glass figurines,

The fine meat of its back
was opened, the steel flourished
with such quickness and artistry

Coma of cold storage
Against the sweetening
Orchard—white petals

I love candy, anything really chewy and so full of sugar it stings like a Sugar Daddy. No matter how much I twist and pull, the long caramel tongue lasts me the full Sunday matinee at Radio City Music Hall, but just in case, I’ve also stored in my pea coat pocket a quarter pound of Swedish Fish. When the magician is pulling a rabbit out of his hat, I

At this moment I am wearing what you bought me:
bikini underpants with that striped beast
sewn onto the front, whereof the quilted silk

Park Ridgeway’s wife, this hot August afternoon,
comes shrieking across the street with one hand
over her left eye, beats on the front door,

… garroting apple and oak, broken off, no longer keeping
the wild estate;
late spring, northern embroidery; lilies shaped like

1. I perceived myself falling in love
in bits and pieces in black and white.
On page 20 she wore a floral robe

Today’s lesson: a black river
which began in the northeast corner
of Utah struggled downward