Naming
(Somerville, MA, USA)

Canada is a pink Pepto Bismol stain that we have placed
above an uneven line, decided by force

Just below it I am sitting
in front of a radio mic

launching words for you
into the dark ice of space

where you will never hear them

A tiny patch of nettles above my lips
tells strangers I am a man but

the black wires you yank sometimes
from the delicate fruitfuzz above yours
are silent

The land I am standing on now is a city which is
and is not Boston under a sky which, dissected
is a million things except

when you look up it's only one
Go up there -- look down
tell me where Canada ends, find Boston
am I a man?  A woman's body

has a woman in it, speaks into space
the words skip from planet to planet where no one speaks
English or owns a radio, shiver invisibly

through something's strange body
one sound after another  My words for you will live

in a stranger's nameless skin


[from the upcoming collection The Eye Saw]