Letter from Austin

Posted on by

perfection

Letter from Austin

Michael, when you say moons do you see
cold stone floating in the firmament
or phrases frayed in the mouth and spat on paper?
And does the Spanish moon simmer at a similar
pace to mine or yours? Which embers blush brighter?
But let’s turn to estuaries, to salt and clamor and gun-
running poets and interrupted words sold in stalls
between parenthetical gates, to incomparable cavas
and the deterioration of envy and intervening years.
Or perhaps mislaid passion – a friend claims love
is merely a bad rash, that we scratch and scratch
and inflame but never truly cure what ails us. Sounds like
politics to me. Or sports. And business. Or neighborhoods.
On my street people should cook and play music together,
laugh, raise chickens and read good books. They should
brew beer, swap tomatoes, recite each other’s poetry and sing
in tune. But we’re different here, preferring instead electronics
glowing in dimly lighted rooms. I reject this failure, as I also
reject the theory of centrifugal force spinning off the moon’s
body from the earth’s crust, preferring to imagine a giant
impact blasting matter into orbit around what morphed into the
earth, and somehow accreting the stuff into this orb we
sometimes worship. This, to me, is how good relationships
form: explosions of thought and emotion followed by periods
of accretion. But what I mean is I hope this finds you well
by the river of holy sacrament. Remember: brackish water
bisects our worlds. Turn. Filter. Embrace. Gotta run. Bob.

Originally published in Heron Clan 3.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

20 thoughts on “Letter from Austin”

  1. … how good relationships form: explosions of thought and emotion followed by periods
    of accretion.

    There is so much within this “letter” to appreciate, but that line about how relationships form! Well said. Well done!
    ~a fan

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply ↓

  4. Your friend Michael was IMPRESSED, I have no doubt! I truly savored every line in this letter. I am big on letters as u know, so this one truly touched me.

    my favorite line: does the Spanish moon simmer at a similar
    pace to mine or yours?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  9. Friendships = warmth. Is there anything more lonely than a person who is without friends, or reading the word “friendless”? Or more joyous than getting a letter or a call from a friend you haven’t heard from for a long time? Your poetic letter says it all.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

  10. Pingback: Letter from Insomnia | O at the Edges

  11. Pingback: Letter from Insomnia | O at the Edges

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.