today's trash
dragged across grass
   the field
separating home from the road
where no missiles worry
anyone in range
   of where i look
in the dark gray sky with sun
trees lit and bounding distance
keeping everything at bay
except a dirty silver balloon
   blown along
from some place not from here
to be impaled on an evergreen
for its carefree drift
   with words
i love you on your special day
flapped deflated in the wind
as i pick up a receipt
two burritos and chalupas
   stuck to a rock

how little we realize
thoughts depend
on a jointed neck
holding aloft
gray gelatin shaped
like cauliflower
folds and grooves
garden grown, earth
mineraled and chem-
istried patterns held
up by moving shoulders
pumping a heart
  to feel
all we might