definition for include24

FOR LIFE (TO GENEVIEVE, MY WIFE)

Your father drank a quart of vodka a day.
Now he lives near an Egyptian pyramid
And in your dream he held a knife
That fell like a sirens scream
And combination cut of light
And darkness engulfing each other.
A police car wailed by between buildings,
Responding to an emergency or just
Fuckers with too much power?
We woke and saw each other in the darkness.
You stood and turned on the light;
A water glass shattered on the floor.
I heard you scream and saw terror
In your eyes, your body clenched and trembling.

In Arles we could see how much the sun exposed
Each needle of the cypress trees.
That many generations of them have sprouted
Since Van Gogh. Small birds circled overhead.
We walked along the river, away from stores
That had postcards of his paintings, down
Narrow cobblestones, passing drunken locals.
Blue sky contained between red roofed brick ghettos.
The sun flickered above a blue shirt rippling on a line
Between windows in walls with reliefed Demons
Bulbous eyes and carnivorous teeth.
May 25th 1996, our first wedding anniversary.
We kept the hotel window open, lulled to sleep
By chirping birds buried within
Branches swept by a mistral wind.

-Mark Fleury

Mark Fleury reads the AQ -- Sept 8th

Mark Fleury reads the AQ -- Sept 8th part 1