July 3rd

i want to eat in the next hour and i will
on summer porches
sitting and drinking
we pass the new baby and
the bowl; grill eggplant
watch the steam rise
from our corn. we will stay
out here until the dark falls
around us, the light from the kitchen
touching the soft edges of our faces
this is now. we all love now and
we are terrified of now. we will speak
of utopia and imagination, of the best
way to get cum stains out of our sheets
and what book did you tell me to read
about bodies. we are bruised and manicured.
we trade cocktails: taste mine
across the bar, our legs dangle off stools
our stories rise and fall, secrets and punchlines
the rain will come and we will hold each other
laughing. the sun will rise and we will call
each other, breaking. the moon will wax
and we will blame and celebrate her.
and we will blame and celebrate ourselves,
it is summer and we are hungry. the sky
stays light and we breathe in deeply.