Kevin Young

[from Kevin Young's jelly roll: a blues, 2003]

Etude

I love making
love most just

after — adrift —
the cries & sometime

tears over, our strong
swimming done —

sheet wreck —
mattress a life-

boat, listing —

from Boogaloo

. . . And the dog, listless,
lays down with

That thud you love,
sighing.

from Pastorale

. . . A weathervane
offering wind and N E W S

Interlude

I know now who
I am writing this to

& it ain’t you

Afraid it’s me
I cannot leave

alone well enough —

a sparrow striking again
again his own reflection