I can think of two or three things I’d rather
not say. This train stop, for instance, all lavender
light, the glassy AM radio of it all: Toledo.
God lingers, I guess, in the Maumee static according at least
to the maniacs for whom His tantalum thrones
are reserved. Swimming now across Lake Erie: goggled up
those AW High School jocks doomed to die
blackly with the gummy barbel fish you call “carp.”
Niko: I want to know about this California pink mountain snow
you texted me a picture of. How high up, elevation
wise? How was it alive, this late in summer? Did your fingers
I held when you were born tremble at the spare beauty
of it all?
Nicholas Rombes has had work published in The Believer, The Literary Review, Oxford American, Cimarron Review, n+1 online, and elsewhere. His novels include The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing (Two Dollar Radio) and The Rachel Condition (CLASH Books).