Daniel

I wanted to tell you—

My mother nags me to take initiative all the time.

Your Volvo slid off the same cliff I speed down

Whenever I endeavor to die

But don’t want get caught dead taking mom’s advice

The paper identified you by your wounds,

As we all learn to identify ourselves;

Broken collarbone, fractured neck, multiple cuts and abrasions

Non-life threatening, it said

The moment you slid your hand between my legs an EKG flat-lined in my head

Phone ringing vaguely, aloof to your struggle

Someone cared about you then,

I’ll bet you sat on that stoop for five hours trying to remember

Who it was

By the time you did, her name was sliding off your tongue and you

Were flailing to catch it,

Bound up in search-and-rescue red

You called your mom and she called the police.

L3: The third vertebra does more than you’d think

Christopher Reeve was superman and even he fucked that one up falling off a horse,

I don’t have to remove a tube to kiss you or

Push you down the street in wheelchair

The doctors kept saying LUCKY

Like you’re so LUCKY, someone’s looking out for you

When you smile the gap between your teeth

Takes off my shirt

You’re so LUCKY and I’m so LUCKY

I’ll tumble down the brush in place of you one day and

Your mother will cry when you marry

A girl who doesn’t know

How you waited on that stoop for five hours

Trying to place a call.