Everything but Texas

For the woman in Albany who never meant

To leave San Antonio. For miles,

Coyote tails & cactus hearts.

Who is her homecoming?

The curious brim of a sheriff hat, the great

Cliched landscape.

I am glad to be gone

Because it is summer &

You can miss anything

If you’re crazy enough.

Outside my window, the horses

Know snow to be a ghosting,

A kind haunt. Their breath

Disappears like a riverbend,

The Rockies cool & honey.

How nobody stays angry here

For too long, the aspen laughing

At my face, all long-

Horn & rain slick.

The Beaumont scientist who’s left

The cows & fake IDs

For skyscraped Sundays.

There are no contradictions, he whispers.

God wears glasses,

The flood comes every year

& if I stay there is happiness still.