Joke

for C.C.

I said I was

nella Campagna, nella campagna

that was my joke

as you took the car off the road

and wordlessly through green branches

to where wide earth

was silent by vines and horse houses.

You put me inside you

under your skirts

and that’s when I thought of my joke.

Sometimes the simplest way is silence

the car so hot I could only make out

horse sounds in the back

our two bodies moving beyond a joke.