is the horsefly buzz skimming a chlorinated
pool is the creosote factory’s closing bell

is a lightning bug for one day blinking is the last
ruby-throated hummingbird finding no nectar

is your sunscreen running in the hollow of your throat?
at night I want to kiss you while the toad

in his pond croaks alone I want to unpeel
the day from your lipsbreathe the same tar

smoke from the new paved road that took you
and led you back