The entire world wants
To pretend to be a foreigner
In a big box store & wander
The aisles shouting, endlessly-
But I am pretty sure that today
Is my day to not just be a guy
But to be the guy. A baby grows
In each drawer of the million-
Drawered cherrywood cabinet
That is my head & to keep
This army of tender brutes warm
Before heading to the strip mall,
I put on your coonskin hat.
I swallow a fist of stones
You stole from the Alamo.
It is like it is each time-not
Just like returning to the womb-
It is as if the womb sucked me up
Into the starlight like a spaceship.
Nothing came before us, I suppose.
Tonight, we will once again forgive
Ourselves for the people that have
All gone missing while under
Our care. Fireworks will splash
The sky with a pink wave & we
Will both jump back, feigning
To look at what we've done, exactly
In the same way. Like lobsters
Hammering missives back & forth
With claw & rock, when it goes
Black, we will bang our fists
On whatever's closest to speak
To each other about
The loveliness all over us.


About this poem
"This is my first Texas love poem. It is a poem not only in love with the other, but it is trying to celebrate and be in love with everything-all of the madness and absurdity-the good, the bad and the ugly."
-Alex Lemon

About Alex Lemon
Alex Lemon is the author of "The Wish Book" (Milkweed Editions, 2014). He teaches at Texas Christian University and lives in Fort Worth, Texas.

(c) 2014 Alex Lemon. Originally published by the Academy of American Poets, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate