Phantom

I dip my toes in sod

and sit on the headboard

of my pine box

 

rather,

I float

 

light speckles

the tree tops

 

I sigh,

it’s another

sea noontide

of uncloudy blue

today

 

my neighbors

faded from

pale to

wisp and

vanished

 

they lived

brief afterlifes

 

their rooms

are vacant

but still taken

so, it’s been quiet

 

my living friends

once came, they

smoked and said

things,

twelve years ago

 

I still dream of

their conversation

 

last time I saw my mom

she told me

she was moving

to France

 

I hope I see her

again,

 

I miss coffee

and school

 

there is a roof

of a shack

aloof

 

at dusk

it glows

like a stage

of galvanized steel

for dancing

sunlight

 

and

evergreen

silhouettes

 

today a sweaty man

mowed the grass

 

his blades

kicked up

all kinds of color

well, mostly green

 

normally

I sleep in

on Mondays

 

and the mower

passes over me

like a vibrating

stingray

 

every night the stars

breathe

 

once

a doe strode

near

but not close

enough to pass

through

 

I heard

its hoofs

on the dewy whiteclover

 

I hear bees

buzz round

the lilacs

 

and

the sound of

dirt road

that comes and goes

 

from over there?

I think,

I can’t see

past a hedge

 

you should see the hedge

in October

 

sometimes I daydream

okay,

I daydream a lot

 

my funeral blouse

sweeps

when I zigzag

it reminds me

I’m alone

 

last night

the sky

was glittering

 

I used to sleep

under plastic stars

 

a splay

of red moss

has draped

a grave

 

it dries

out

each winter

 

there is a bird

somewhere

 

I just

heard

the trill

 

it’s my birthday today

 

happy birthday plastic rose!

happy birthday evergreens!

happy birthday crickets chirping!

happy birthday distant hedge!

happy birthday my pine box.

 

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