Sevenling (Boys with matching haircuts)

Boys with matching haircuts in the half-sun,

Their fat juicy sandwiches, their jiggling

Knees making a little dance step where they sit.

Men speaking aloud to no one, men in hoodies

Not recently washed, men wandering the cafe

Ordering nothing, not necessarily sitting down.

Do you know another word for this day?

Sevenling (Squaredancing)

Squaredancing on the broken tennis court

whirling and crowdshouting in the old ballhouse

clumsy-learning to the band, it's always this body.

Climbing up, skiing down, and playing the sports

that twist bodies, jar knees, jump and jump and jump,

that would be all the world's other bodies.

If you close your eyes it might never stop.

Sevenling (Always the constellation)

Always the constellation of my storylines

One long father, one round mother, one sister to run after

I wouldn't have known what to do with more.

The new triangle where I step in for what's missing:

A child, a child, and me, boys who are everything I'm not

And a few things that I am.

I fly. I am. I am fly. Family.

Sevenling (You gave me)

You gave me the lavender dress from a basement vintage shop

That had been a white nightgown, trunked in an attic;

Your solemn joyful promise; the Mondrian scarf you would have discarded.

You chose for me these remarkable blue glasses; this hairstyle; 

That final thoughtless birthday present.

Some of these lost, some discarded, some still right here.

Forgetfulness: a sideways blanket.

Sevenling (Wynken, Blynken)

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod

do the herky-jerky all over my childhood

and I watch my mother sleep on hard wood

Peter, Wendy, and Hook dance through

jealousy, agony, stuntedness,

3D dramaticus threading my earliest dreams

It can come at you from anywhere.

Sevenling (two boys who grew)

two boys who grew from my body

and the world I see forever twisted

I walk away with these

two boys who look out through strange eyes

and the story that makes it all make sense

I cannot follow these

and I dance with the fiercest of women