Jim Kober


The Horse

You pick up a dead bird,
huck it against the wind.
Not like a girl. Not like you.

When this is over
we will divvy the emotion.

It rains and red birds stick to the grass.

             ***

There is a way
of being clean
that takes a lifetime
without seeing an ocean.

             ***

We drove around the block for hours
trying to talk each other out of it.

We drove around the block for hours
trying to talk our way out of it.

We drove around the block for hours
trying to talk.

             ***

There is a horse.
In front of me there is a horse
fit onto a stamp in the envelope’s corner.

On the opposite corner is your name.
I stare at it, unable to cross it out.
Unable to open.

This letter, this horse, your name
and new address,
all prove the town is mine again.

             ***

Today clouds like strands
of curly hair over the floor.
I used a mop
and I used it twice.



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