Causing an Accident

The moon builds its tower
Sisyphean project
Like a velvet landscape
a velvet Elvis above the booth
I want to arrive this way
like resurrection
in front of you but not
Casual on a curb
trapped in a beam
almost crossing in front
of every moving vehicle
A long pause
A breath
Skin feathered over bone
silvering and bright
We want it to happen this way
A sudden capitulation
giving way to flesh
The secret plot revealed
Innocent face with eyes wide
whites showing
before the bump
I ride in my body’s hearse
We are circling the block
We are made entirely
by confiscation
We are waiting
for love to save us
something borrowed
an oxymoron
or absolute truth

Copyright © 2016 by Sarah Bartlett. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on May 5, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.