OVERHEARING

 

The way "The Tennesee Waltz"
is about having heard

"The Tennesee Waltz"
before:

an almost floral
nostalgia,

totally self
contained,

is what we call
beautiful.

*

You're in the rocker;
I'm on the couch,
long since hauled off, but
stationed
like organs
in this dream.

You're saying,
a bit too loudly,
so that I'm afraid
the one doing dishes
(now dead)
and the one in the bathroom
(now gone)
will overhear,
why you first wanted me,

when I wake up
to hear you
thrashing,
yelling out in a dream.