A New Year

There you are

in a barrage of dry lightning

this disdain of fireworks

makes crackling of our skin

For two days you promise

such foolish cares

I put water out for the dizzy birds

make contact with the roofer

get the final gas bill

You are true to your word

no rain is released here

yet suburbs dowse in ruin

hailstones make spittle of vegetables

grapes are crushed by icy venom

I sleep with the ceiling fan

inland the driest towns flood

fish memories are stirred

desert frogs find the surface

there is a scrabble out of buried worlds

An offer on the wind

a fall of fifteen degrees

it is too early for people

a streetscape of silent episodes

hunkers in relief

Then your touch gentle in a child’s hand

behind the glare after all

those speckles drib their drab

turn solid to spheres 

By coincidence I shaved

to feel this showering salve of new year