You need to let rise into daylight
what you’ve seen on the darkest of nights,
as well as those trivial sepia silhouettes
of bodies moving in nearby apartments.
No matter who you are, a little variety never hurts.
It’s possible to rethink that reddish full moon
coming toward you across the bay,
to change even the feel of it as it approaches.
That is, if you want to be true to life,
not entirely to the one you live.
Don’t hesitate to include the pink Cadillac
that may or may not have driven by
while you were eating macaroni and cheese,
or those meteors that fell at sensational speeds,
dissolving into nothingness.
You need to remember it’s likely
something nameless is governing you,
which is perhaps why your dreams
often turn odd and grave: you’re lost at sea
and the sharks are pretending to be dolphins:
In another you’re your own secret agent,
gathering evidence, never quite sure
if by mistake you’ll turn yourself in. A man
like you is always in danger of getting things
wrong. No rapturous solutions in the offing.
What you need to understand is the mystery
every family harbors. Dig deeper and deeper still.
Under the photos will likely be that packet of letters
tied with a black ribbon, and the sudden uprush
of what you didn’t, couldn’t, until now ever know.