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| Dunkin' Donuts-Somerville, Mass.I'm here with a guy whose uncles tossed him Into manhood and the shipyard in San Francisco Where men meant muscle To hoist barrels, fists For ropes and children's tricks With hard candy. Eyes to take in Without letting on. Not to give Anything away. Navy wool caps in hand To ask Uncle Jim's big shoulder To shoulder bribes for unloading. (It's not like lawyers' This wariness, or college politicians'.) No one talks. It goes without Saying. A woman, for instance, Is seen top to toe, stopping here and there, doesn't matter what She's wearing. I'm here with a guy who walks Like all of you. Who talks turkey Vulture flight, and knows which agents shoot, Yet holds Ohio in the heart grateful For pie and silence, for porch lights on And no recrimination, but expects to have To fight. Who knows when To look eye to eye, when to cut off- I'm here with a guy southwestern in the butt Tight as a prairie hare's, who knows When to touch Me to say she's mine. He's Appalachian across the chest Muscled hills the partridge covet. I've seen The fence thin thigh twined in jewelweed, And the still beneath the peaty soil hid By rhododendron in a West Virginia wood. I see the pride of hawthorn isolate Its tender limbs gone hard For a season without ceremony. He holds a coffee cup. -Rebecca Kaiser |
