In the part of town
Where we slide together,
The horse hooves never stop
Landing.

Part flushed with drinks, part glowing,
I told you, “nonsense,” that chariots
Were never made from used weapons
Or armor.

“No, it’s true,” I couldn’t stop you by glowing
From saying, “They were really
Made that way, and I know because
Sartre.”

(The portrait above the mantle is growing
If I don’t straight away go
And see it.)

Maybe Sartre bought such a chariot,
Or the device slipped
In among his thoughts, inspiring
Him to restlessness,

To lean in and kiss her above my mantle.

We direct
Traffic and catch
Programs at 3.

Suck of heel
On aspirin powder
Announces your approach

To our hangout.

The record lists new configurations,
Vehicles on 45,
In grandpa’s corrective lilt

To clean you off, visit over,
This doorstep.
With open arms,

The threshing floor
Shifts green as we mention
Your other phases,

Dribbled out in repose.

Marvel at the weight of it,
Black bags in tow,

Hang above the seating,
& smoldering catch down.

Picnic in orbit.

Languish with magazines
After dim hours
Of charcuterie wasted.

Missing all the steps
Of reverence by candle,
Wield yet the scattered dome,

Duration forgotten in ticketed bleats.

Please don’t worry
When the heading swells
With other titles,

A dried lentil under mattresses
Or drop of pigment in the lake.

Branches disproportionate in the hothouse,
Catastrophic produce
Promises something wriggling,
Periphery awake.

Serried leaves inhale to scatter
From the narrow remaining way.

!) Choose an angle of descent between seventy-five and seventy-eight degrees.
@) Make definite lines rather than rubbing the blunt edge of a pencil or charcoal across the field.
#) Maximize contrast between the marks and background, light on dark, or dark on light.
$) Subjects should not be seen reacting to or observing the rainfall.
%) Gutters and drains allow for heightened symbolic and dramatic effect.
^) Meredith Gabler fits rings to pigeon beaks.
&) Spacing between stitches should be approximately equal to 1/2 their length.
*) For additional impact, experiment with hues other than blue.
() The beaks can’t open to speak or take water.
!)) Think of the soundtrack that might accompany this scene, particularly its rhythm.
!!) If you do not wish to delineate individual clouds in the stormfront, a gradient toward darkness will suffice.
!@) Rings grow dull and soiled, come unstuck eventually, sink back to the earth.
!#) If no stormfront is present, the weather will appear artificial and unconvincing.
!$) Instead of Ms. Gabler, the groundskeeper is trying out children that collect in the undergrowth.
!%) These wings permit filtration of light into its shivering particles, each one drenched.

Caught short by Dignity Lazer in the balcony,
I escaped onto a chandelier to be courier a while,

I am pressed to adapt by acting a fable,
Swimming in images from “another car’s garage.”

Lives above the dining area are stuck together,
Clinking glasses submerged in a hiss of tape.