the red slipping thinner
radiant
after will be a wink to complete
blackness. you do know we talk
of the battery meter on
the laptop?

sorry
the perfect start for a canadiana poem
we now presume
I jumped the gun — water pistol
whipped
outsquirt you square in the eye
squarer than shoulders
which are sloped actually
even in the weensy reflection
in the unfinished ellipses
of your eyes

placement of the lamp
on motel room dresser
is bolted down too

Time ticks even when I grab its hands
nasty thing, even when I take out the battery
the moon shiftless shift ticks me off through
hours. Sleep seems to have the sweet black
and cream left on the bottom of the hot cocoa
mug rim like cartoon eyes defying every normal
logic that commands sleep. limbs stutter
into the furred ribs of cat, fingers slosh off key
homerow mislaid, head is heavier than late
yesterday yet my mind chickadee flits
from the cold of a bed alone, larger than
the Atlantic and easier to drown in, being closer.

day’s little death in the east
hidden behind
sleet-snow curtains