Reb Livingston
At Last and Everlasting
This is where we surpass the love of mothmen and mothers
and foretell burnt wings, death by hummingbird
estimators arriving much too late to the scene
and this is usually when he laces her back
and then his coffee
there's hot comfort on the side, comfort belonging to someone else
and he named the island after another because the name he wanted was forbidden
and it began in a valley, ravaged by cargo trains
dragging loads of coal, dusty smutty coal
suck the coal, pray for the coal, what's wrong with you
she specifically said never kiss the coal and there you go
quarreling with bed lamps, attracting the wrong creatures
pick these walnuts, peel the rot, watch these girls
these ones aren't permitted past the church
and these can go till the end of the lane
whatever you do, don't let them rip off the wings
girls are so cruel
coal sucking Venuses, cartwheel thrusting harlots
and when he says coming through, he means passing through
that means you ready the casserole and let him roll
and she means it all, every bit, and knows that cornbread will make you sick
and there's tainted tuna for dessert and those late trains that
she doesn't want you talking to – sound amazing
and they're totally different in the dark
fluttering, channeling their depressing little omens
dreamy romantic trains and moths, chugging towards that light
and she's threatening to hang herself and she's asking for $50
and she has a cat and there's a lot of foreclosures in this city
and who would have thought anti-lock brakes would shake like that
and who would have thought kissing coal could be like this
there's a thousand chemical reactions and they all warm apples
into decay, apples loving their creaking branches
even after dropped, watching from the ground
those apples know all
the squirrels pilfering nuts, lavish deceitful squirrels
brown licey beautiful squirrels, it's time to rethink the medication
time to give up the ghost, she doesn't see it anyhow
she's shutting the ambulance door, the girls whisper emergency
the girls twirl their mustaches and tie the specter to the tracks
the girls tell the specter to step into that light and leave their moths alone
bitchy home-wrecking wraith, dirty train-hopping banshee
it's a miracle, it's forever, we're doomed
we're wearing matching smarty pants, we're disasters, we're marooned,
festooned with soot and stickiness, we've come a long way
through all that haze, on the backs on insects,
streetlight by streetlight, endless blocks ahead