1.
A car almost ran down my brother and I crossing Lead and 2nd
downtown the other night
He sprinted, I dodged, and the machine roared north, drunk towards
Central Avenue
Heart rates elevated, we had a beer: glasses held with shaking hands “Did you see that? I was THIS CLOSE”
I pinched my pointer finger and thumb together to illustrate
A near-death experience, shouldn’t I be so much wiser now?
One feline life-measurement unit down and how many to go?
So close and nothing changed but the shrapnel underfoot, still hot
from the almost
2.
The pride parade was the next morning
I wore a T-shirt with a picture of Walt Whitman’s face on it,
Considered meeting my ex in the crowd, looking around for her,
and thought better of it
Women on inflatable unicorns shot super soakers at the crowd,
a hot June day
Men in leather, the old guard, danced to disco music on top of
a slow-moving school bus
There were no protests and I was grateful
My thirtieth birthday looming and sweltering, approaching
I watched the line of brightly colored floats and hopeful revelers drift
towards wherever it is that parades go to end, horizon a few miles
off the rainbow
3.
Coming home from the movie theater
The power is out, a line fell in the backyard and the house
smells like ozone
My neighbor gives me a candle, says the fire department just left
I light it standing on a saucer on the floor of my bedroom, paper and
books cleared away in a perimeter
Small prayer light to what quiet watchers
Those who see the gay child and the drunk driver alike
More mercy than I/the outnumbering of days
Let this only make me kinder
I open the window and the screen
And I sleep with the wind on my back
