Gonzalez-Torres at the Solstice
Everyone guzzled what light there was leftover,
filled Big Gulps, jars with screw tops (optimists)
guy in front of me with makeshift dozer
attached to his car grill, stacked the light promise
in piles against a rainy day. A forked
blue caldera in the otherwise ashen sky
tormented us with reminded concord
as it sucked up daylight and my rebel eyes
shut tightly against the dark, my logo
made veins that ran parallel like lightening stock
footage and the time I saw the photo
of two clocks, made to never and definitely stop
Perfect Lovers. Grasp them, my bireme
and believe in days short as a prescient dream.
Why They Revere the Alcoholic Neighbor
I killed a deer
You killed a deer?
My one time hunting
What made you think of it
That truck over there is like my old neighbors
I see
He took me hunting in it
Why
For meat
Sitting in one of those blinds
No, he shot it from his truck window
That is so illegal.
That’s what I said
What was his answer
Only if you’re caught
So there you two are driving along
We see this deer
He stops the car
He reaches pulls the rifle under his seat and fires
He shot a deer out an open window?
Actually it shattered
Jesus, then what
We went and dragged up the body and put it in the truck
You went along with this
Pretty incredible one-handed, from a moving truck, single shot to the forehead
Was he drunk.
I don’t know, I never saw him sober
Why were you there
I was twelve
No greater reverence than a child for the alcoholic neighbor
That was the only time I hunted
But what did you think.
I thought, wow, you can do that, you can do that in this world.
