landscape with sex and violence

after lynn melnick

the morning after

the sun was strong

and it made me feel clean

the one time i did not go to flush

you out, threaten infection, want,

careless or frozen, it was colder

that night, like i wanted to stay

close to your furnace,

the mountains outside sharp

to remember in the morning instead,

you never took my clothes off,

just did what you had to do, you say

you don’t care for words,

what’s it to you?

what’s it all for?

we talk like animals anyways

that’s what you would study,

how to build, how to lie

still, mow the lawn manicure

the sacred flowers, no bruises

we can see, silent knife,

Every Place is like Somewhere Else,

unsaid like the dunes,

quiet violence, a shrug

two faces, and no one to see

put on your boots first thing

like ready to leave—why don’t you

take a dead thing

between the teeth,

the swirling landscape,

and your complaints,

the American flag stabbed

into a hill

sublime

first glimpse

of Nashville is gray and

dead and all these

cars

the morning after

the sun was strong

and it made me feel clean