October

1. Potholes

You sigh.

"It seems like we've been driving

For years."

On a spider road leading,

We know, we hope,

To the ocean; little more than

The ocean.

It was a dark day, dark road,

Not knowing

Where it ended,

(Sea, It all had to end);

Where was the goddamn ocean?

The season was over,

The sky was autumn-teal.

Wet-hooded beachvines

Scratch the roof,

Whip wheelcovers,

Muddy carpath swells, coils,

Axle rolls, see saws,

The sand soft,

(Ocean must be near).

You groan.

"Good thing the car's old;"

Drops on the glass;

"Windows, up or down?"

You're cold,

And mute.

My, high, voice:

"Hope it doesn't die."

(It would be goddamn hell

Dying like that.)

2. Poppies

You sneeze.

"Oh, look,

The yellow-brick road."

Ahead a blowing plain

Of dry lavender and prickly bushes

Of currants that look

Like poppies.

The ocean was in sight,

But silent.

"I'm cold now,"

(As if it's your fault)

Put on the blue sweater

You never gave me.

Ahead a lavender plain

Pricked with red

A salt-bleached

Slat-grey path

A mile long--

But Sight

The silent sea.

You stare out

At October.

(Never been here

Ever been there,

A vast heath,

Midnight clouds and

Mean new birds

Snipping beneath the barefoot poppies.)

3. Storm

Eddying back,

Birds like black confetti

(Like the first razor's edge

Of ashes'

bitter-burning conflicts)

The planks creak:

A hidden twittering poppyguard

Knifes up from the lavender.

We both wanted to run

To the sea,

Hushed heath

Before the endlessly

Hushing sea.

Are you thinking

Where it all will end,

These terrible birds with

Circular purpose,

Closing, rising, swarming

Like crazed black bees

Between us and the ocean?

4. Flight

You stare out

Of my handhold.

Through wingblack clouds,

To the dunes of the sad ocean.

I walked a tottering rope

In a hard sand track.

Staring back at

Heath's end

A black-twitching

Wind

Waits.

Your weary winter coat,

Sand-dead,

Covers your head.

"I can't hear a word..."

Originally published by The Rio Grande Review, University of El Paso, Volume 21, 1, Spring 2002.