Outlawed

Legally, you can love someone
until the day it’s outlawed

and even then,
if you’ve got a good attorney,

you can love them
on appeal.

You can still love them
even if you lose

your appeal.
This is America,

so you can just file another one.
It won’t be comfortable

in that cell, but,
unless they catch you,

you can scratch
poems in the concrete

until there’s enough room
to squeeze

into the ventilation shaft
and escape.

They will catch you.
Spotlights don’t sleep

and when they see you
at the edge of the bay

they’ll send a German Shepard
straight at your heart.

They’ll cut you down
to a half-hour

in the Yard.
But, think about all the things

you can think about
in the Yard. That

half-hour, that
gleaming fence.

Keep looking through it.
Everything outside it

belongs to both of you.

-November 1, 2019