cold sunlight down tracy street
on a sunday morning
and i am almost able to believe that
the past can be left behind
i am tired of these abstractions
like america and god
i have moved awkwardly into the
21st century and brought with me only the bleeding horse
and it walks slowly
from room to room
without ever casting a shadow
and there is a child somewhere
who will be the next one to
die horribly
and there are linda’s sister’s moving through this
lush green landscape
ten years after the cancer
devoured her
nothing is more important than motion
nothing is more important than love
these are the words i write with
my wife and son
two hundred miles away
and i know them to be true but
speaking them out loud is a
different thing altogether
i have learned that silence is
not always failure
is sometimes just weight
it can be carried
but only for a short while
by John Sweet
