Artemis in Harlem

Brothers Agave (for Tomas Estes and Phil Bayly)

Brother is what you are

that home so long ago made,
its velocity
the great change necessary
to carry our untidy heroic acts
all over the planet,
install them in the life force
we come to name agave love.

Our story begins with a palm tree

an invitation to accommodate
a little more poetry into everything
that I couldn’t refuse

once I saw what that
that open sea was capable of
it became a door I walked through
and never looked back.

To be hope

rode freely through
loose and curious chapters,

both mountains and monsters
flickering our pages

this is the one thing we have
always agreed on

so that the history
we make
dream after dream,
that motley group of desires
set in
motion &
bathed in exaggerated light,
will have never been
for our satisfaction
alone.

I write this for the moment
we celebrate our return to the world
our first evening back in Mexico
as it begins to blush into morning
when we’ve only just begun
raising all the glasses we have
to raise
to this whole kinetic affair

the birth of a book,
now a living creature,
who carries with it
all these tall tales of mischief
that fell over the earth,

all those things we hummed
into magic
from somewhere deep within
the interior,

the fabric of this familiar place
where our bodies labor to trick more
laughter into everything,
anchoring into our restless future,
the one that looms brighter
with each hungry hour

every single time
we climb inside
an unknown vehicle
and just drive.