Twofold

You said goodbye and the warmth
of your hips lingered against me all day long.
The dead birds in downtown Austin, Tejas

got up, flew off
and died again inside the capitol.
The security guards pulled out their guns

and filled them full of lead.
You said goodbye and the warmth
of your thighs lingered against me all day long.

The smell of natural gas
spread throughout Manhattan
and New Jersey,

up to the tallest building
and down to the house in Patterson
where William Carlos Williams lived.