Do you recall the speckled sky,
each star emitting cooling light?
We have this rusty burning barrel,
we use it every night
We light up our old magazines and
boxes from online orders
and wait for transformation,
just like flattening train-track quarters
In this case, the trash turns into flakes
that flare as they soar high
If you squint just right, they look like soothing stars
against the sky

But the difference is, these ones hiss out
and we find something else to do
While the ones I still recall 
were little holes that love leaked through 

You see
over there, in the upper right corner
there's one that still remains...

When you stare at it, it lights you up
and shows you who you are
and though the sky’s all but switched off
There is a lingering star


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When I left the
Chinese restaurant
where the cook had
white eyelashes on one side
and I was the only one there
I returned to the
Amtrak station in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
I let the French girl
use my phone

then sat
in the corner
and watched the Amish man
watching the TV
and wondered what
he was thinking about
he looked serious
most of the time
but when the funny parts came along
he sunbeamed
and   stuck his tongue out
                 a little


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Lisa
the youngest flight attendant I’ve ever seen
my age
They were doing the demonstration
the seatbelts and life vests and stuff
and she couldn’t even keep
a straight face


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