The Morning

Gone for one
thing and for
another I acted
like a storm
when should I
be a sound
in a field
so then I was
like I am
waving here
at the bottom
of the driveway
in the movie version
a conversion out
of the gone should
be a conversation
and now here
what is really
different beyond
this day
which parts
it sucks on this
side of alarm
and before well
was I really
so great then
I left briefly
just barely
turned my head
and I was old
in the morning
puzzling out reason
for the people
who are gone
our all-time favorites
trudging off
to work under
the constellations
big graveyards named
we are sad
and unimaginative
taking in the coffee
like rain in the way
of the dinosaurs
and ancient
and frightened
blocks of ice
we are gun-shy
a little star-light
through breaks
in the leaves
of the ceiling
and that’s where
I’m going to
unravel the map
it’s right there
adjacent to failing
experiments and arms
waving like a crazy
person hello big
mysteries hello
from where I am.

Seth Landman’s first book, Sign You Were Mistaken, is forthcoming from Factory Hollow Press. He is also the author, with Seth Parker, of a collaborative book of poems called Tyoyeu.