Jeff Guess

i.

See who it is this afternoon

who crawls on all his fours

at the bottom of a slow green sea.

Gomer run off with another man;

three children sit somewhere

in the shadow of his grief.

​

ii.

See who it is

and how he moves this morning

in the clear-eyed resolution

of his pain-

against the practice of his peers

the unwritten laws of infidelity:

not to regard her now

as worse than dead, deserted-

debauched and sunk in slavery.

​

iii.

See who it is this evening

who thinks he knows

the author of voices in his head

and how he lets them out

to shout down crowded streets

in the city of the deaf.

 

iv.

See who it is this afternoon

finds Gomer in the gutter

in the red-light district of the town

takes her for cakes and coffee

tells her the boys

still haven't had their breakfast;

he can't get Rachael to go to school;

and their bed

he washed and aired this morning

needs turning in the sun.