Travel Advisory

Ten short poems

---

Travel Advisory 

One December, when I was 17,
I drove through a blizzard because
my girlfriend had beckoned me.
I was snow-blind & low on gas

& probably would've frozen
to death had I slid off the road. 
I wondered if there was a Saint
of Lost Indians then screamed

with joy when I pulled up behind
a gorgeous snow plow. I followed
that bright rig into the next town,
parked & then walked into a bar

where a drunk dude asked, "Kid,
are you dumb or are you in love?"

---

Counterpoint

I'm asked how I can write
about jubilation in a time

of war. I say that the brutes
always want to slaughter

our joy. There's nothing more
that the executioner hates

than a doomed bird who
still sings to greet the sun.

---

Family Song

On the coldest reservation
days, we saw rows
of icicles hanging from
the edges of our goverment-

built home. My siblings
and I, wearing old socks
for gloves, would break
those icy spikes from

the eaves, launch them
through the air,
and pretend that we were
winter warriors

defending our tribe
from all our enemies.
Hey, you gotta be strong
to survive poverty.

---

Generation

Our farthest descendants will
only know us by our photos.
Don't worry. Those farthest

descendants will also become
only photos to their farthest
descendants. This is how it goes.

For all of us, there comes a day
when there's nobody left alive
who remembers who we were.

---

2023

This was
the year when

too many
of my friends

were the first
to proclaim

that blood
and water

quench
the same thirst.

---

Nocturne

At night, we sprint
from streetlight
to streetlight
until we are
exhausted. Then,
beneath the last
streetlight, we
shimmer

as we kiss.
This is how
we defend
ourselves
against all
the darkness.

---

Interior Life

The only way
that I'll die

in the wilderness 
is if

my plane crashes
in the wilderness.

---

Hunger

As a child,
I sometimes

hid food.
When you

were a child
did you

hide food,
too?

---

My Janus, My January

The bedroom window is open
and cold wind turns

the curtains into tides.
I toss aside the blankets

to escape my bed's furnace.
Then I breathe, breathe

through the freeze. Sometimes,
it's good to shiver on purpose.

---

Love Song

undress caress tenderness
incandescent bioluminescence
bless O bless O bless O bless