Matthew Dickman

I lost blood.

I lost blood and stars and the fifth grade

honey, honey,

it feels like I’m never going

to be OK and summer

is coming no matter what.

Summer looks at me,

shakes its head

and says fuck you

I love you so much

which meant there would be no other world

but this world

Oh tulip, I remember

everything, every every every

thing, the light coming in

through the bamboo, walking

in the dark over the overpass

toward your place, and the black

silk pillow I hated, the picture

you posted of me back before time,

when I was still new, when I was

something you wanted too badly