Once
Two brothers bruise, set off through the basic white
day tumbling down the hills toward August, the city harbour
splash two coins in their pockets, each a stone-cut hole over a knee,
both brothers the basic algebra of a knife
the dirt singing in the gaps of their jeans
in what nook or cranny does the rest of their life settle time and crackle
separation bones and bravuras their hearts’ banging
the ice barking against a tray’s cage in the freeze-thaw-freeze momentum
the city on the run in their britches and prayer bleachers balking
against decay and accomplishment barters before their parents death
ran the bases full-throttle and loss began separation
dear brother, did we ever dream as we dunked each other in the deep end
swallowed straight-up the infelicities of language making us anew
all that silence taught in our mouths,
fish hooks stuck in a throat, blood in the gills
there we gambol, each of us, our words clanking against the cement in a roll of dice
love darted in the gut where once we named it us
as we deboned the fish and listened to papa rain off the bow
while our bodies and memory fattened and the puddles bulged on the pavement
thighs, soft
who failed to teach us the catechism scribbled in the bath stall in school
a taxonomy of loss undressed
by the graveside where our hair cowlicked in the gray October wind.
