Verde, que te quiero verde

verde viento, verde ramas

-Lorca, "Sleepwalker's Ballad"

Lorca green was the grass in August.

A slight headache of sky, tension under my Roosevelt St.

heaven. Loving that summer. Cartoons every morning. Summer

of six nights when mother left and I ran through

the graveyard toward a hammock and swung

all night

until my feet

were wet

with stars.

She left with that Italian. I came home after running across Nelson Field, wind hard

on my face, on my chest, racing Bociek home. Smile. Sun as I ran in summer. Home to nothing but a house full of wait. So I left the house of waiting for the waiting outside.

She passed in a car. I saw her fat hand hanging out the window and her shadow racing the street.

Break this line into a white space and let it be

significant.

Mother was hot that summer, something like a radiator overheating and cracked under

the hood.

Oh that hot Italian boat love was enough to take her away

for those six days. Waiting up with a house on fire. Oh Rock.

You were the first that swirled and painted the mandolin on evening. With that kiss you were spring to me. Cling to me. You were different. A narrative ripped to shreds and pasted to a burning moon.

Complete heavenly ash. You haze the day beautifully. Ultimately.

And on that last day of the six she'd return from the voyage, whatever

that might be, locked to my North.

Mother, or were you noon and a sun licking the hull of a boat out of water.

Chad Faries was raised mostly in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, but lived in 24 houses by the time he was 10 years old. These experiences are chronicled in his forthcoming memoir, And Then We Moved  (Emergency Press February, 2011). His poetry collection, The Border Will Be Soon, was the winner of the Emergency Press open book competition in 2005. The Book of Knowledge, a poetry collection whose design and contents were inspired by a 1911 children¹s encyclopedia, was just published by Vulgar Marsala Press. He has lived extensively and taught in Central Europe. Currently he is an Asst. Professor at Savannah State University. More info can be found at  www.chadfaries.com