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Academy, CA
Inside the iron gates, crepuscular shadows tongue
from headstones, our feet listening, our hands
holding the Academy Cemetery of Levine and Soto
and we read them while sipping smoothies, drying
in our swimwear, the hills this Sunday dead and gold.
An Exit
She picks the milk from the shelf as I massage
a sponge into the morning’s bowls. In the quiet,
I know she’s reading the expiration date while
the garbage truck shirks from a distance. Faucet
hums closed and she says, “Babe, are you going
to drink this?” It’s been a couple of weeks since
I opened it, dashed it over my cereal. “I think
it’s still good. Leave it in there, I’ll drink it.” But
I know I won’t. Not until the thick and thin white
have separated, not until it’s begun to expand,
not until she opens it, sniffs, proclaims,
“You let it go bad, again” will I say, “I had to be sure.”
Thesis Reading, Fresno State, Spring 2013
Las Vegas, NV