It Is Permitted To Go Outside
I don't take my shirt off
much, but when I do
it scares me slightly
to see who I wasn't
expecting. Hello? I am
opening the door,
but it's just the dusk again
knocking with its abundance
of acorns. I built this house,
have lived here forever / my whole
life with no others
but a dog and some shadows.
So in honor of Change Your
Life Day, I flip
two burgers in fat / self-pity
and look out the window
to where the yard is dark and
familiar. But really who am I
to say what goes on
in the blackened backyard when
the plott hound is sleeping, dream-
[....]