I’ve lost the unspendable coin I wore around

          my neck that protected me from you, leaving it

bodyhot in the sheets of a tiny bed in Vermont. If you

          could be anything in the world

                                              you would. Just last week they found the glass eye

                                 of a saint buried in a mountain. I don’t remember

                                              which saint or what mountain, only

                                 how they said the eye felt warm

in their palms. Do you like

          your new home, tucked

away between brainfolds? To hold you

          always seemed as unlikely

                                              as catching the wind in an envelope. Now

                                 you are loudest before bed, humming like a child

                                              put in a corner. I don’t mind

                                 much; I have never been a strong sleeper, and often

the tune is halfway lovely. Besides, if I ask you to leave

          you won’t. My hands love you more

than me, wanting only to feed you and feed you.

          Tonight I outrank them

                                              but wisely you have prepared for famine.

                                 I am trying to learn from all this.

                                              It was you who taught me that if a man

                                 stands in silence for long enough

eventually only the silence remains. Still,

          my desire to please you is absolute.

Remember the cold night we spent

          spinning on my lawn?

                                              I wore only basketball shorts

                                 and a pair of broken sandals.

                                              I tied my hair back and

                                 laid out a hammer, some rope,

a knife. What I was building was a church.

          You were the preacher and I the congregation,

and I the stage and I the cross and I the choir.

          I drank all the wine and we sang until morning.