Dear Cousin

by heather

I am in a city of one million
(including immediate suburbs & etc.)
you are in a town of 80,000. South of here.
if I drove there
        parked the rental car on a corner
        sat in a noisy cafe like this one
        near a busy intersection 
	at the center of town
                        would you know I was there?

come into my life
        and I was myself for you
        kept turning around and
        you were there
        quiet and absolutely real

we were real

your slacks are splattered with mud a foot above the cuff
the ground all around this old tar path is saturated with water
you in your black polo shirt your mother bought you this afternoon
silently you look toward me to see
silently you look toward me
                no contradiction
outside in the air surrounded by alfafa fields and the horizon
fields and the horizon  

picture of my aborted brother
polite like the grocery clerks I have dated
with a skateboard on your hip
come here nascent cousin
lover in chrysallis, cousin to coincidence
come around from behind that almond tree

the sun is setting in Utah
which is already behind me