Craig Goodworth, Yelen #4, 2011
For a View of a Great River
We know the history
of our romance, how pinking shears
ward off frayed hems
and ghosts protect us
with rousing hymns
disguised as wind. We can
go back, not twenty-seven years,
last week to start over
with apple muffins
as heavy as a baby armadillo
curled asleep in the palm
and I love your lavender sweater
and want to stare
until the luster
of the pearl buttons brings on
a migraine as riotous
as a homecoming cheer.
I’m wary of the world
of now with my fish for a tie
and buffoonish red-checkered trousers,
but we are not the couple
at the viewpoint. One takes
the stairs one the elevator
and that’s a missed kiss
in a glass box a bit like a casket
that lifts and leaves you
on the lip of a bluff
carved by the last great flood.
________________________
John Morrison