-1-

I like the expression "bitter cold";
I like the idea of winter holding a grudge,
a grudge so deep that every time it sees you,
it spits in your face and mutters under its breath,
"Fuckin' cowboys."

-2-

"Hang on, I'm sorry, one sec;
'You're gonna take the first exit off the bridge,
no, the first, stay in the outside lane
and head across the intersection and take a
left on Howard; no, Howard; Howard,
and take Howard all the way down.
I'll tell you when to stop, thanks.'
Anyway, what were we talking about?"

-3-

I would stop global warming If it were up to me,
of course I would, but not just yet -
I would give it enough time to make New York in winter
a little more like Dallas and a little less
like the outer shell of an iron lung.

-4-

I've discovered that whiskey tastes better
when it's cooled just slighly
by the melting snow
that drips off the end of your nose
and into my glass.

-5-

"Listen hun, I'm sorry but I couldn't fit your skis in the car -
every time I turned a corner they poked into the next lane, and
I couldn't reach around them to turn the radio down.

"I tried tying them to the roof but the ski racks you tacked on at the dealership
to make it look like we were one of the few families
who really did climb rock walls and fly and shit in our SUV
were, it turned out, good for only that and for nothing else -
they were held on with rubber cement.

"I'm thinking we should just fly to Aruba and buy what we need when we get there."

-6-

You know what's halfway between here and there?
Two snowstorms, twenty-six inches worth, a sheet of ice,
a frozen bucket of water under a frozen tap,
one hundred ninety miles of icy road surface
and the best damn coffee on the planet.

You know what else?
My hands are cold.

1

I learned while working in a factory
to love serial numbers. Their gift
is memory.
On a matrix switcher I found
stamped in metal
initials
of a woman whose touch
I still feel if I try. I tried.
I touched the dry powder-coat:
it felt
like skin.

2

Rescuing someone from a life
is easy.
Appear to them
as you would earth
to a man on a boat

(pretend to be buying groceries)

3

I grow plants.
It was not for you, once.

I'll give you lessons: look:
the leaves touch light
and light becomes sugar.

So your gestures build, I will say.
Your light, my sugar -
the leaves touch light
(softly, as a good lover should)

This will happen,
    all of it.

4

If together we lit the sun
you would stay cold
because I would cover you.

If together we drank the ocean
you would stay empty
because I would drink from you.

If together we made mountains
you would stay clean
because I would build from you.

If together we died
you would stay mine
because I would remember you.

5

Between two bodies
temperature does not combine,
only average. So

too with hearts, I will
find without saying, the time for
lessons having moved

into the quiet
which feels now like it needs to
break, like leather, like

ice.

6

I learned while working in a factory
to love serial numbers. Their gift
is memory.
On a matrix switcher I found
stamped in metal
initials
of a woman whose touch
I still feel if I try. I tried.
I touched the dry powder-coat:
it felt
like steel.