TUESDAY: Up on that Damp Bed

BY CHRISTOPHER WOODS

Copyright is held by the author.

for Nicholas

some nights in a storm
when there’s no money
to fix the roof

or soaked with fever dreams
and visions known only to Blake
or the meth man up the street

or crying a river
over the loss of one thing
or another that breaks the world

or the baby coming early, too early

or the river rising all around
the dark room in the night

or incontinence that visits
so cruelly in later years

at least we can be thankful
for one thing, that soon enough
the bed will shift and shudder
and begin to float away
into a calm morning
elsewhere.