A Singing Accomplishment

I

We would be sleeping now
if it were up to sleep
we can never get enough of it
(the evidence lies around
in beds freshly unmade
and in graves)

The last light has gone down
on the last house on the block
the last door has excused itself
and swung to its jamb

In the rest of the neighborhood
Dylan Thomas is dead
but here he is only drunk
and growling something
as we sit up talking

and suddenly it occurs to me
that someday we will end like this
in midsentence

and suddenly it occurs to you
that we should take a drive
that we should cut the top off the car
so the stars

II

I wish I had met you
early on,
before school
before the friends
and the boys
to come

Maybe if we had been together
early on,
in an older neighborhood
while we were learning
slowly to speak

III

Wind blows clothes on the line
but no shirt rips and no coat tears
spouses have affairs but no spouse tears
no hearts hang broken

she lights another cigarette
but it’s not smoking

and you have to wonder what the purpose is
you have to wonder how the moon
now painfully round
came to lose it’s edges
when it was the rain stopped making a sound
when it hit
you have to wonder if there are any words left
jagged enough
to tear the air
the shirt
the heart
and reveal

The piano player plays a vague accompaniment
to stammer through one honest word
would be a singing accomplishment