The man beside me, a baseball
cap and docs, picks his nose in the open air.
Outside,
a raven, a target shopping bag in her mouth, carving sexy shapes into the air.
The frayed cord of a hard drive, sorrow, both fit
in my hand.
The capillaries in my hand
burst last night at the thought of you.
The past has been refusing too.
iv.
Jos Charles
Jos Charles is author of a Year & other poems and feeld (Milkweed Editions)—a Pulitzer Prize finalist and winner of the National Poetry Series—and Safe Space (Ahsahta Press). She resides in Long Beach, California, with her best friend and cat.