i
still think of you when the world gets like this
the air smells like rain and you ask me
how can it hold anything. Air, you say,
it’s just air.
I hold my breath, imagine I can stop
This, every beating
of my heart proves what a liar I am.
A car backfires and the world goes sudden & gray.
I tell you I am a believer
in so many things. Goodness and mercy
that have no end. This is my body.
This is my blood. Thunder me hard, make rain
bleed the sky dry. When the world gets like this
I still think of you; ditch and gravel, red-
winged blackbirds, my skirt hiked up, you, hitching for a ride.