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« SUMMER 2010 | Main | PERIPHERAL VISION »

THE REAL CLOSE

I weed around a square
smudge pot from the Forties
between the lime and lemon

to remind me of cold nights
and its red-hot pulse for hours
on nickel-a-gallon oil,

saving Christmas oranges
for wooden crates of gold.
Its bottom full of starlit

pinholes, swamping lugs
at night down orchard rows
of nettles stinging

the face of a 10 year-old
craving manhood – the real
close and lasting past me.

Posted by John Dofflemyer on July 13, 2010 5:38 AM |

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