People Talk About Books

by J. Tarwood

 

The gods say that man should test everything, and that
strongly nourished he be thankful for everything, and
understand the freedom to set forth wherever he will.

It’s an old farmhouse. Wishing for a dacha,
white girls and boys stand in cold rooms,
drinking beer, talking books,
each opinion a feast of bones.
Yearning to thunder, Jack’s full of words,
voice like a cat crashing through garbage cans.

A wide porch sprawls with everybody else.
Vicky’s legs hug the banister like icicles.
Loudly shy, Jack hopes. Surely something
will do something.

                             Hills loom like aspirations.
Dark’s happy framing faraway lights.
As happy as Jack at this time, in this place.
Vicky’s a fate of make believe.
He’s got the ways of stone to learn

before the gods will have anything to say.