Tender is the One

1.

We are doing the pointing and looking
after it, protecting its back as we go
over the trace that is light, ferrying it
against the sound of our following

It is light like after, like fumes or dull
like the pulp of oranges and lemons and white

We get it in us as it is going, obliquely,
the corners of our eyes and our lips

Tender is the one to see it softly thru,
and the one putting a coat over us, our shoulders
when we are flashing and we can't drive
inside the shaking,

we can't drive through the things running
it through the trees,
it makes the sound on us and on mailboxes
on the one her face her soft face in her hand
her hair in her hands and she's talking


-

it is to the new place the cabin and hard floors
walking around with the new sound
of muffling