Tommy takes us down to the riverhouse so many times he forgets how to get there on this road we threw firecrackers and then quiet water calls to me strengthened by soot and the blood of coal miners I want to jump in even if it would mean drowning it is so hot here it’s poisoning all of us Tommy looks away across the bank so I cut myself quickly into pieces Richard’s boy aren’t you a familiar face I have never seen before he does not know his kindness it is his cardinal sin even I know to be spit on by all good believers to speak with eyes to my cousin smoking behind the house Tommy will fall into the river eventually that much we believe together wordlessly I don’t know why I still come here to sit on the banks of the Lethe maybe if I dream hard enough they will forget about my worst parts the parts they can’t love
Morgan Starnes
41
