Stillwater

Stillwater I never left you.
Stillwater what kind of fate do you call this?
You still have fruit on your trees in Marina.
When were you going to tell me about your curse?
Stillwater five times a day I face east and I’m still not saved.
I walk around like an animal and write down names.
There’s nothing honorable about it.
Five times a day I walk out the door and watch the clouds deliver faint messages to you from the bowels of a storm.
I need help there’s a tornado on me and I can’t get it off.
Three days ago the walk around your lake was clear as a diamond ring, now I can’t see a single carat.
Stillwater your borders are quickly fading.
The penetantiary is opening its doors to the hungry and homesick.
I keep trying to make my entrance but I can’t cross your long highway.
Stillwater I’m drinking brandy and it hurts more than anything you’ve ever done to me.
If this is all you’ve got then you need to try harder.
I’ve suffered worse than you, Stillwater.
All of your sprinklers were going off under the moonlight.
The dogs tried barking with pinecones in their throats.
Stillwater you are the original capital!
You are the rustic bridge that crosses to home.
I’ve done nothing to deserve your phantom lights.
Stillwater are the boats still ferrying? who will you guide home?
Silence is not an answer.
You’re evading me again.
I should have known peering over the edge of your mossy dock that this was going to be the end.
Now I’ve gone east too far, you set me in motion.
Flying through orbit. On a new axis. Becoming smaller and smaller in the dome of your star-swollen sky. Stillwater, you’ve lost the moon.
The grocery store is still open. Eggs in Stillwater cook faster and taste better.
You store up your tears in the gas pumps! the car washers!
I could tell you were sad, that night we watched you cocoon.
When I watched the way your weary sun set, and shivered at the brush of your harsh air, until the night passed over us like a stream, I could have sworn you were my future.
Stillwater I remember a time when we used to share our feelings, when our only walls were bridges that carried us over your violent river, which has flooded over your angel-white gazebo ever since I’ve known you.

Stillwater, you never call me back and I never call you.
I don’t think we’ll ever be able to arrange a meeting.
I think when I said goodbye I must have meant it.