For Gage, After a Sunburn

In New York we had the walls the doors
the doorbell to Dawn's house the keys
to after hours (my favorite) trains caught
by margins thinner than -- fingers! God
the charge in them I wrote miraculously --
we had baby carrots and Chianti and a roof
so late or early that we watched the children
filing in to school across the street we had
so little sleep the sidewalks drawn
to scale and walking down the street
I felt like shoplifting I was so happy
even the fact of leaving couldn't touch me
and of course we had Arlo & Esme
where the light was good the coffee hot
the pavement wet.

I got burned in California.
Now there's no one else
I would let touch me. Christ it hurts
even to lie here writing.
I could use a drink in a cold glass.
How far away are you?
I'm coming to you like a bullet
from a gun.
Soft bullet, gentle soul.