EAST/HUDSON

snow settling on the hudson;

it is twenty minutes to dawn, & we are

listening to christmas carols.

the sense of new desires;

slowly ascending spiral staircases

while considering suicide.

you are smoking on the fire escape.

i come home & smell acid & i think

you can’t surprise me anymore.

i lean on the doorframe,

& you look up, gasping for air.

you seem so afraid now.

i was wrong about everything.

the blind man downstairs needs god,

& i only need you.

this is the paradise

sparrows sing for; your body is holy,

& i am trembling against it:

the most human of landscapes.