Sunwater Sister

[Originally paired side-by-side with the preceding poem. Again, not really my thing.]

Sunwater Sister,

your fit is fixed

again. You’re taking

it all with a

fist of coyote-

red. And one

day the rhythm

will be gone, and

so will the rhyme,

and you’ll only

have the one

reason, emptying

like cracked steel

drums into sky-

stained water

bailing out your

vessel to keep

from flying

counting lines

so you can

fit every word

reading it backwards

to catch snags

like flies on their

papers like notes

on a staff playing

up to meet James

tapping his toe

you’re a sound he never knew