Capital she said

lowering my writing case

i opened up to her

 seventy seven

the number of steps

to my birthday swim

 floodlit

the castle is floating

in the night sky

 snort fair

but it quacks them up 

pigs and ducks

 now you tell him

if the bus conductor asks

that you are seven

the poverty of those lines in

the poverty of those times

when we intone

well what the hell can i do

then we are dead 

 spring yes spring 

the transience of perfection

be held in my hand

 so many faces

in so many facets

crack me up

 prognosis 

the bloody bell curve

shatters me

 predation predated

tales of the river bank

• ripped reeds

 unconditional surrender 

to epstein interrogation 

make justice great again

 they don’t stop crying

when the news cameras leave

grief is forever