Where We Live - Palehound

Where we live

Beneath the frozen lake

Our hands reach out to each other

Like we’re telling a story

A good one

A funny one

About the people who have wronged us

One that we rehearsed earlier

In the time before this

While we were still getting ready in the shower or in front of the mirror

And we look good, we look really good considering everything

My mom’s hands look elegant and tiny

My sisters' asses are tight

And their eyeliner is identical

And our hair is flowing behind us, still and dark

And their heels hold onto their toes

Like a person at the edge of a window

And my boots are cutting into my ankles

And we are noiseless and hard

The hot blueberry casserole before it drops on the ground

The bad news before it breaks

The eyelash swimming behind the eyeball that makes us wink

And down there with us, I guess there’s a bottle

And I guess there’s a red cloud of wine always on the edge of enveloping us

And up above the men hook worms onto the end of hooks

And cast their lines into the cold grey

And whistle as they wait

And we stay below in the dark

With our mouths open because we are in the middle of saying something

Or in the middle of stopping one another

And I am just about to touch the ice

I’m just about to make it crack

I’m just about to get us out of here

But nothing ever changes

The ducks don’t come back

The men go home to their fires

And the woman they chose

And the sun stays hiding

The trees hugging the lake stay naked

And they shake from the wind