Brothers

Now are you silent and sitting at a dive
   You have buried your head between your arms
You are hoping to swim away after a foul meal

I am still young and studying at school
   I am dreaming of a siesta open at the throat
Or a painting of paper hearts making mine sleep

Now you are in Florida before a sugar cage
   You are fumbling among whores
While the yellow chirpers couple in the green heat

I am gazing at savannahs of charcoal
   Or small villages under everlasting snow
The foam of my cock running over my legs

Now you are walking the deck of the S.S. Ticonderoga
   You are returning to battle to recover your smile
The cities of the moon observing an evening at sea

I am moving outward beneath wisteria on the road
   Above I’ll follow paths of smoke in the air
Ahead I’ll count thorns of steel flecked with blood

Now you are trembling saying goodbye hurrying to the moment
   You are deserting a picnic where the old brood has gathered
You are banging a door grinding an axe in the secret shed

I have grown through you and I have gone from you
   I am lost to you and I am with you in a far country
The intruder you’ll murder in a liana of oaths

Here the burnt maps are remembering
   Here the double scars are unrolling
One mouth on another mouth singing a song more ancient than hate