NATE SLAWSON
from MIRANDA, OR AN ABRIDGED HISTORY OF THE TENTH GRADE
When will our fucking hearts cease to riot?
--
Superchunk
I know I promised you
I wouldn't make a scene
in front of all your friends
but is it so wrong if I write
your name across my shoes
& sit by you at lunch
is it so wrong if I want
to stand next to you in gym
class O your legs remind me
of a river bed I would do
a hundred sit-ups for
you & whisper your name
& kiss my knees pretend-
ing they were you
+++
do you remember the Halloween
I went dressed as a cello & you
were a postcard of the Chicago
skyline O that was the most
fantastic night you were all lit up
& I played the same three notes
for you over & over again
but now I've forgotten what
you said when I told you my heart
had been welded shut I think
you said something about
symmetry or else you laughed
& told me I should have
come dressed as a bullet wound
+++
I wrote your name on all
my folders & drew your
silhouette like a bruise on the back
of my hand O you are an arrow
in my wistful heart you are a
radio that keeps me up each
night in bed but once upon
a time you were a girl with
wings & you let me trace the
fissures in your spine O why
can't we go back to the time
when you were a cloverfield
& I was a meadowlark in the
engine of your delicate teeth
+++
Miranda I said Miranda why
do you insist on calling me
by my name when I asked you
please to call me Ferdinand
to show me your teeth
& show me your fists
goddamnit there are still
some bones in my chest
you have yet to break
if you want you could use
my ribs for a cage in which
we both could live O if only
you'd draw a big black x & take
that fucking pickax & swing