Years Over Coffee

as i sat at your table the dead cat burst into flame
no more blood pudding    no more red spots on my shirt
over my heart where all my bleeding starts anyway
here in the world of dogs without earphones
where i wear my cup of coffee on my head like a hat

the jeweler had finally found his teeth under the counter
his coffee’s harvested    it’s got its feet on the table
clouds glide over microwaves in their very own graveyard
i could formulate tomorrow from what happened last week
but that guy just walked out the door with my blues in his ears

   eons have passed the horizon
   end over end the sunset of sleep
   sheep come into the restaurant speaking with different accents
   saying wolves cruise this street nightly
   their ears locking onto songs of lambhood

   i can see that    i was in my twenties here too
   your calypso’s music slew me i wanted to stay
   for the rest of my life but the look the sea threw back at me
   made me remember sunset
   and here  i am    sunset

   my coffee talks the dialect of years
   the buses pull by
   they’re like something on a computer screen
   the sheep are home    the wolves are home
   out in the kitchen they’re brewing a whole new generation

from Amateur Mythology (2017)