season of glass
this idea of mortality
the different ways you hurt people
and the ease with which
you can be reduced
to being human
someone's teenage daughter
caught by a surveillance camera
filmed talking to a stranger
and then his hand tight around her arm
and then she's gone
two days missing and then three
and then the snow gives way
to a brilliant blue sky
dirt streaks the windows
the shadows of objects
spilling blue
across silent back yards
beauty
but always with the threat
of something darker underneath
pools of water
but always stained by oil
the sound of the highway from
across the river
or a passing train on the
other side of town
violence at a safe distance
this homeless man drunk
and passed out on the tracks
his name
which i never know
each life defined
by how easily it ends
the geography of nowhere: a continuation
the walls cold to the touch
and rain against the windows
in the soft buzz of 2 a.m.
the shadows of ghosts
the steady weight
of unpaid bills
of middle-aged men on top of
young girls in rooms filled
with harsh white light
mothers asleep and
fathers dead and
cars on the interstate
the thought of escape
the taste it leaves
a different form of
starvation
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