Outside Of Here

Let's keep the secret. On my life
I know a woman's lovelier than a wife.
I want to be your woman
and without recourse.
Darling, I love you.
Lets get a divorce,
–Laurel Blossom

The Things We Did

Drove so far North

we lost service,

(Which is as close

To the frontier as

One gets these days.)

Gutted fish, tossing

their heads to the birds.

Wandered a town still

haunted by empty hills.

Slipped into lakes and

cut our knees on mountains.

Spit blood, drank beers

and got naked by the fire.

Hissed, howled and

cursed like wild beasts

wandering in the darkness...

And we put his ashes in the river,

huddling together on the shore

as our friend drifted downstream.

Giving back to nature

what never belonged to us.

Leaving The Fires

 2 Weeks

Free of gravity, the halls

Aren’t so bad to wander.

Unchained, forced to remain

a ghost among grey faces,

my expiration date set.

Zombie, leper. Co-worker’s

Afraid to catch the ailment

this sudden urge for desertion

To upend the world and step

Into the unknown, or worse,

step into nothing at all.

 We opened closets and bureau drawers

and packed away, in boxes, dresses and shoes,

the silk underthings still wrapped in tissue.

We sorted through cedar chests. We gathered

and set aside the keepsakes and the good silver

and brought up from the coal cellar

jars of tomato sauce, peppers, jellied fruit.

We dismantled, we took down from the walls,

we bundled and carted off and swept clean.

Goodbye, goodbye, we said, closing

the door behind us, going our separate ways

from the house we had emptied,

and which, in the coming days, we would fill

again and empty and try to fill again.

–Peter Everwine