You prefer she, right?

                I want to say that it’s not really a preference,

                it just is. My life ain’t made up of preferences,

but if it was, I would simply prefer to not be here.

I would prefer a cliffside, a Van Gogh landscape,

a menagerie of colors so bright my eyes could not focus,

but mostly, I’d prefer to not see. If forced to, I’d prefer to see

                the whole world through my eyes & through my eyes

                I am six feet of stardust & Tennessee sunshine.

                We heard how in Van Gogh’s Starry Night you could tell

                the time through the stars but around here we mostly guess.

                In the night humidity, we tell time by the cricket’s chirp

                & distant city lights—Marlboro smoke rising in place of us.