And then
my hate turned to love
gushing, juicy, rippened love
holding hands on the bus love
kissing your same sex lover
at the airport kiss-n-ride
and not taking a side-long
glance
before locking lips love

The bic blackness in my left ventricle
pushed into my left atrium
just like the arrows in
junior high text books
with the doodles of farts
and fanged monsters

The bic blackness reached the fingertips
of branches on the darkest hour
of the winter solstice of
the toughest year of our green
lives

There the bic blackness paused
saw it’s breath
with the rising of the sun
the pink glowed turned black
to red

Now a cardinal, the previously bic blackness
took flight, heading west
heading toward water
heading toward tomorrow
Now a cardinal, now red, fleeing right
ventricle blue, hovering over
discontent’s white
Steinbeck left town
on the horse(?) he rode in on

“Fuse these wings” the cardinal begged
Sparks spat abuse
“Fuse these curses” the cardinal prayed
The Aurora Borealis moved south
to south Lake Shore Drive

Afterwards, the cardinal slept