9.

He was once a connoiseur of wildness
Coke on the beach in Mexico
The dark thighs of strange women
Piercing, reckless love letters
Sometimes addressed to her

He was once a force of nature
Broader than a hurricane
Lashed to a pier
Set to destroy himself

She was there for all of that
Lay in the back of his huge Suburban on an old sleeping bag
when they skipped class together
he drew demons
sang his good songs
she read Revelations
and laughed and gasped

He was intuitive, frightening sometimes
had a good goatee, even at seventeen.
He can't find songs to sing now
But he writes lengthy papers
His head is so rich with thought
He is paralyzed in his armchair.