Alison Fenton – Graduation


Alison Fenton

Graduation


She’s looking for him like an abandoned child on a horsey ride, a dog tied up
outside the supermarket.  I’m just a Willis, been hankering for black
cowboy boots and here they are.  Don’t the palm trees
seem antithetical to the cemetery?  Having combed upstate
there’s a lot above Albany.

Here lies, here lies, here lies.  You’ll bask in your master’s grave, flanking two sides
of the same structure.  It’s no small wonder they all decided to die at Mills.
Not from the same cloth, Not of the cloth.  She was the wild one
that married into the family.
Does opinion count for pay, Can we keep our ashes
in the binding of a book?

Tell it.  No one’s happy, Everybody’s creepy.  Did you know that standing
on top of a buried body is disrespectful?  Don’t say that, Lisa’s sleeping
in a strange place tonight.  When you’re driving
across the Bay Bridge and it’s all fog, you’re really in a white room.
Do you think I’m a boozer?  Do you still love me?

He’s convinced himself that if he’s not getting married he must be a vampire.
God, you look so charming
with an apple in your mouth.
The novel stops on the swing and plays in the sandbox.
You caught a knot and roped the creek over heights with your head thrown back.
It’s true, she’s a Number One Stunner.  Look at that picture,
the promise of everything that came before you.

Go ahead and touch the tree with your foot.
I know you speak truth when you say your life is your work
and your work is your life.
Bits of the ceiling are coming down at the same time.

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