The Poems

Letter to a Friend

From the Christmas, 2001, issue 

(No. 7)

The perfume of wet pavement rattles the air

enters the nostrils like a bee sting

sings of:

honeysuckle

wet dogs

ripping grass at the park

The trees limp,

under a heavy enamel of rain

the gum-tattooed cement glistens

in its own selenium-toned ooze

organic emulsion of man-made grief.

Oxygen in an urban rainforest travels

the veins like bricks, graffiti, and newspaper boxes

All this apocalypse to post a letter

which will arrive with your name

in large

bled

ink.