Old Fashioned

looking back: life mask
abraham lincoln
chesterwood, the berkshires

Old Fashioned

                if you make yourself the envelope

                whose flap of dry glue edge

                is spread opposite the pouch

                and in the pouch the letter

                                and you've invented the letter

                                and the nature of the letter

                                and the length…

                and it’s addressed and it’s stamped

                and the return is bold

                                and if you make yourself

                                the receiver whose tongue

                                is between her

                                lips and those lips are

                                pulled then between the one top

                                and the one bottom  jaw

                                but not before not before no

                                the wet warm meets

                                the dry glue and the glue is brief alive

                                in its intended work

                                and the tongue is sweet

and then it’s pressed

and it’s held

                                                and it’s sent