I Knew You Before You Were
Rusty chains coiled in the cardboard box
I carry to the dumpster & all I am
Thinking is my face is falling off and is yours
Under it and or is someone’s I don’t
Even know—further down, a stranger,
A dead man, a saint, or just a sprawl
Of gravel and then I’m thinking this other thing—
There’s a snake in the box, black tailed
& then more: there’s a bottomless immensity
Beneath my feet and what a sacrifice
It is each day just to get by, this alchemy,
This fevered life: illness and love,
Lockjaw and slow motion kidnappings—It is what
It always is—chronic dying, shivering with
Unbelievable joy and not knowing a damn thing
About anything as lightning
Jigsaws the horizon. At the garbage pile, I pause—
Take a deep breath and sit on the curb.
Like they’re being sucked into the sky,
The trees’ limbs lift. No cars on
The street—so quiet. So hushed I can
Hardly breathe. Thousands of lives
Are piled into all this dirt we walk
On and I’m waiting, saving it all for you.
... by Alex Lemon
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