Songs for the Extinction of Winter
Rob Cook

THE NEOLITHIC

Because I was only learning

to see, it took months

for you to show me

where your hand curled

into a snail

the electricity scratching

across your nerve sky

contrails that keep you awake

You’ve written their history

and the names

for the laughter between Demerol

and the time it took me

to put your shards together

and see you

because I was too angry

to wear contact lenses

the years I walked around

and didn’t know what a person

looked like

and so I dressed and lived

as a man from the days

before sun

following the storm-lights

through your arm,

past the trees of hot iron

past the stone soldered

on the way to the ends

of your fingers

where I watched you

over and over

in the planet’s thin early air