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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