I’m here to witness beautiful things.  Brighter colors, possibly, or sweetness.  A banana split with a cherry and whipped cream.  Hot fudge and caramel.  Food and sex and bright colors.  It’s an advertising default position.  I’ll have a coke and a smile because of how well a coke bottle fits in your hand, surrounded by babies and puppies.  OK to the short deer.  Off to the left off the deck the sound of a jet ski.  Yes to the jet ski and parasail and how music follows us wherever we go.

The mail’s here as you have to be all right also with the mail arriving and the sun bleaching everything white, with friends, too, and when you forget what you’re doing.

***

Kristina Marie Darling is the author of over twenty books of poetry. Her awards include fellowships from Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and the American Academy in Rome, as well as grants from the Kittredge Fund, the Rockefeller Archive Center, the Lerman Trust, and the Elizabeth George Foundation.

John Gallaher’s most recent book of poetry is In a Landscape (BOA 2014). His poems have appeared in The Best American Poetry, Poetry, Boston Review, Chicago Review, and elsewhere. He lives in rural Missouri and co-edits The Laurel Review.