"november" and "ode to an addict(ion)"

november

snow falls in
bay city
where there
are no
huddled
masses
 
snow falls in
bay city
where the
streets
have names
just like
every
other
michigan
city
 
there is
a
street
called
water
and
another
called
center
and
streets
with
names
that run
north
and
south
 
names like
 
fourth
fifth
and
sixth
 
for now
i’m stopping
at
number four
 
at wife number four
 
leaving wives
first through third
i can explain
if you
give me
just a moment
of your time
 
but four
 
i can’t
move past
four, the
needle
of my
compass
doesn’t
point me
in any
other
direction
 
so for now
 
the snow falls in bay city
 
i walk out of the
coffee shop
at the corner
of center
and
fourth
 
and i
don’t even
think about
wives
one
two
or
three
 
just as
i imagine
that they
don’t think
about me
as my
wingtips
leave
footprints
on
the
cracked
sidewalk
 
footprints
that
the
falling
snow
so
cleanly
forgets

ode to an addict(ion)

it’s not
the
lack of
will power
 
no
 
it’s the
haunting
of
stones
and
apples
 
     eve
 
you know eve
 
she ate
that
first
apple
and
every
bite
of
apple
             has been
fair game
ever since
 
i’ve eaten the apple
 
again
and
again
 
i’ve eaten the apple
                                 since
 
i first
tasted it at
the aching
age of
twelve
 
and now
 
years later
 
at the
past due
age of
fifty one
i still
keep
the
apple
with me
 
it’s always there
 
there in my pocket
 
or in my
kitchen
tucked
away
between
the
music
and
the milk
 
 
and stones
 
there is
no one
to throw
stones
at me
when
i eat
the
apple
 
as if
no one
cares
if
i am
dying
just a
bit
with
each
bite
of this
breathing
and
roaming
apple
 
and this i do
 
this i always do
 
unseen
 
in the
brightest
light
         of this
 
and
 
every other day