monte cristo'd

but if we did, we'd
speak in beat-boxed rhymes, nods and
significant glances

•

scratch and scratch a hole,
burrow through to light; then, once
you're on the ledge? jump

(the water's warm, the swimming's good.)

roots

you pulled at my
stops

drew me further ac ro ss lines
and my vision blurred

still, with sharpened sense
I took hold of the present,
tossed what you'd interred

***

I have a French poster whose tape does not stick.