Boy Scout

              Elmgreen & Dragset, installation with metal bunk bed, lacquer, and lights, 2008

The metaphor, exactly

sometimes what it feels

like: a bed turned down

not easily but w/ tape

measures + patience + drill bits

 + electricity + trigonometry

 + adhesive + shoulders +

belief, somehow,

in gravity’s willingness

to pull you where you belong

before morning.

The lights: a cleanness.

The Way You Changed

I might want to see

A city without its men is a clearing or a family

There is so much yellow in this room

There isn’t even a sun

I could not survive in a binary star system

What else could a long set of hours be

What else happened in your dream

A question no one asks

Maybe if there’s money involved

When isn’t there

There’s no way to stop us from becoming our fathers

There is no way to save the trees

I’m sorriest for the lone gingko at the quarry

Who isn’t just a few minutes from a collapse and plunge

Everything is so bright

A forest is a fire minus time