COUNTRY SONG
in the summer
you dance
through
the soaker
hose
you take a sip
ask me about
leaving
you say if you
moved away
you’d be a
nurse
you say
if you were
a moth
you’d die
I look
into the
sun and watch
it happen
GIFTS
A family heirloom rubs at the arthritis on my hand
Wedding band or ball gag
Wedding band or fly rod
The mountains or the race track
Here I am all thirsty and picking my scabs
I once tried to kill myself by covering my mouth
But the sun came up and thwarted my plans
The ghost in my nightmares were sentenced to live in every hotel room I visited
Shadows of my memories nest in the crook of my brain
So I choose to pleasure myself to pass the time
I imagine the barn loft where I was first birthed a man
I imagine a disloyal hound and a bright red truck
I imagine the earth slowly tilting on its axis
I am both trying to live and trying to die
DIRGE
My lover brought me coffee to bed
She plucked at thorns in my back
She replaced them with eyes
She sings to me a song then lays naked in linen sheets
A sea lion yelling for its home
My lover walks me to the garden
She points to each of the tragedies
Where a man gutted the barn cat
Where the mare suffered in the flooded creek bed
Then a crow’s nest empty in the corner of the barn
I weep and my lover returns inside
At the window she undresses
She feels only a half-inch away
Over dinner she tells me the living room is only an ant farm
And we are helpless small creatures
She tries to console me
The living room is only the river
Christs side was pierced by a spear
His erection concealed by the white cloth
The sign above him read
Your name is in his heart
Evan Gray is from Jefferson, North Carolina. His book, Thickets Swamped in Fence-Coated Briars, was published by Garden-Door Press.