although the prairies are burning
in faveolate lines
tonight’s drive is more obscured in intention
than the road
this plan to get a room
and I would say make love
but looking back through smoke
I cannot see my own heart
writing its essay on heat
not virgins but virginal we unravel at the mouth
and the wine we bring is warm
and the bathroom is in the hall
and wake to a sunlight
that will save me the pleasure
of the heartbreak I’ll later devour
Heartbreak, save me now, devouring pleasure!
In parenthood I am granted no respite from fear
I shine over formula bottle at my son
and will try to stack and store many years
ahead in natural calculation my face
the shape he’ll need to see
uncertain in four a.m. fever
first nightmare blister broken arm and scare
save me from the terrible muscles of the hand
when he has become someone else
when he has become no one more
than compassion has transformed me to understand