It was a summer for sitting naked in
The backyard, the deep drizzle deploying the young
As an aspect of the lately-discovered elemental.

Cynical millenarian, I like
You in this shot, posed without
Insignia or emblems,

Bemusement was the better part of sanity,
And sanity was your glance past the surly
Occasion to the sheer morning or moment

Détente did not augur a new era
For this unmapped sideshow taking place
On a dirt road off another dirt road.

We cannot live there and wouldn’t want to
But cherish it as a moral charm.

We were advertising our urge for life
To ourselves and anyone else who might
Have noticed

The smothering heat of a July night
Squats in a second floor bedroom
And doesn’t move despite the desk fan’s

An honest man to whom she could say
That her beauty has been a joke.

Any tourist will tell you:
Envisioning is our medicine.
I, too, hope to see what I can’t see.

The store dick lays a hand on your shoulder
Three steps from the exit. He asks what’s 
In your pockets but it’s more like a statement