west texas

a furious unchanging speed’s

learning how to cope

with what’s been is done

he can’t get a hold of time who doesn’t have call waiting,

so he’s waiting mad,

incensing

The trees were printed and not in motion
Power lines were numbered 1, 2, and then got smaller, way out of view,

even

            the sun kept staring way too long

            like looking at a cousin

No one knew

who

he was

or

where

he was

            going

the car, though bent, moved 
like a chess piece in unspeakable

indescribable direction,

was finally at some sense

            rested, in some place, in west texas

pinned under the weighty mass

of death in his varsity jacket

blue and white, now that came 
as a surprise

national champ

his namesake was in black and white, always the last page

he’d taken out kids and men

presidents and women

a tsunami whorl

taken out

ten after midnight for a final ride

pushed by the blood-thirsty moon

what followed was a wraith-like tide

to wash away any trace of human imposition on some island

he was obsolete in someone’s skin now

I guess his organs own whatever was left;

repossessed, he gave those up, too

one arm can 
reach higher than two

a bible in the backseat

a dog always knows his master’s thoughts

confident, relocates the crime scene

clues in the shepherd to the left