slide

By Dennis Hernandez

the meals we shared on separate periodic tables
how many sleepless multimedia nights?
all manner of disappointed ruins
what oceans swelling to crest
in well appointed rooms can make up for it now?
broken in and broken down
no smoke along these tracks
in endless tracking shots
can cover all the marks
the needle drops on the only record you ever made
and we are here to collect the balance owed on the advance
tonight the hills are on fire
tomorrow the june gloom will bring the rains
and you will laugh as his house slides
carried by mud to the bottom
a ladder rung he seldom ever sees