Earth Day

I am going to live for once among these
enormous roses praying to the moon at midday
and I will smell with all my powers of concentration
their pink and orange edges
while rolling in the dry dirt covered by thorns
and serrated greenish leaves.

I am going to shout god’s four hundred and twenty
names through these warming tears of beauty, burden,
and loss and not stop looking straight into the mirror
until the real rest of quiet overtakes the day.

I am going to remember sitting tall with Blake
on the faded leather stools at the drugstore soda
fountain counter, Redi-Whip in hand, and
aerosol fresh, we once more spoon the thick golden caramel like pure Heaven onto this white girl vanilla ice cream and past our fat greedy pursed lips into our hypnotized mouths, laughing as boyhood lust fulfills itself again.
I will walk or ride to the drugstore every afternoon in a ritual of communion, not worrying whether my bike stays safe on the near side of Prescott Street away from my mother’s fear of troubling traffic.

We will steal his mother’s money straight from her black purse to celebrate and feast forever like rich pimps or thieves on the lam in Baghdad.