Crater Volcanic

It’s always the most blue
water that is lacking
bacteria needed for true purity.

Chico

Small town, dreaming about getting
out, to the small city,
coulda used it as a stepping stone,
but who could ever leave the great escape?

Tilt your chin up to smile down the sky at me.
I want your excited confidence to lift me up
when I know my love is what it’s in.

Hard to get

a read on—

They say a birthday should leave you wiser,
more learned, more intelligent,

You slice me wholly through,
to my core.

I plunge the incision back at you,
and the foot-long dagger disappears

Dear

your

Josie didn’t know me,
but I think that she was lonely
in her ignorance.

In memory, it is nobody’s fault.
The authority puts the wood burning stove out. The ashes
stir back to life.

I’ll forgive if you’ll forgive,
and I will love if you will love,

and I’ll have grace if you’ll have grace,
and I’ll be soft if—