cooped in a house this depressed era    winter
summer you say I’m really your friend  I believe
it now but before in the spring    it was pinwheels

could’ve been poets seeking nothing but tea   coffee
chocolates         grand canyon space  understating
worlds of difference     your activism accurate

paintings hang over white   walls      laughter
your echo screams through town I have a bucket
of these memories splashing out      on the short

walk to your place     I can’t stop feeding   monsters
you laugh at me onscreen    onstage
our common ground is both of us   leave as far

as we can go    to stay an other

(originally published in Avatar Review, Summer 2021)