“SO LONG, IT’S BEEN GOOD TO KNOW YOU”

Our generation has come to grief, old dears,

                                                                 as all generations have to.

Outlaw of physics.

Well, hello stranger, put your loving hand in mine,

                                                                          well, hello stranger,

You know me, but you’re no pal of mine.

Coming in the front door, coming in the back,

                                                                     gonna raise the roof lid

On your daddy’s shack.

Speaking in tongues, as we once thought that we were, back then.

Train whistle, bat swoop,

                        twilight papier-mâché in the crimped pine trees,

Cloud deck assembling its puzzle pieces together

One by one.

                     It goes like that.

So snarked, so soon, the tenderness that lurks inside us

Massages its knuckles and slips on its dark hoodie.

It’s like that,

                      it’s always been like that.

I wish I was a bird in a tree.

Watch where you’re walking,

There’s always something bigger behind you,

                                                          and something bigger ahead.

Twisty the way, and twisty the place you’re going to.

A rock here, a rock there, wind in the trees,

                                                              bright shards of green glass

The bat swoops over, listening for food.

It’s starting to rain and I got to go home.

                                                                        Be good,

See that my grave is kept clean.