A Proposal

Float down river with me baby, I’ve got

several beers on ice and a dog named

Denver. Good boy’s got a coat like Fredericksburg,

upholstered in antediluvian threads.

So float down river with us baby,

and Denver will bark at the gulls and

our bread crumbs will beckon them back. Float down

river with me baby, past the jetties

I walked with my cousin when I was little

and full of unknown, ungrown affections.

Float down river with me and I will complement

you and your floral printed sun dress, until

the words become superfluous, and the

meanings behind leave the reasoning within.

Float with me and our laughter will loose

their sound in the waves. Float with me

and we will remember what salt and sea

taste like; those pieces, so simple, so vital to

what we are. Float with me and we will fall

fast asleep unto the dying line of the new-

dead sun. Float with me and we will fall

floating in the breeze, sprinkled in starlight

like cosmic confections whose bloom has gone.

And when the air grows stiff and black, I will

Sit nearer to you than the spreading pitch

and crown you the comforter of me and my

aching self. And where those laurels fall,

we will fall and the rest, will follow.