A (Very) New Poem

Please handle with care. This poem is in its early stages. I'm pretty much putting this up here now just so my mom and sister can read it. Anyone else, feel free to skip it if you wish.

Praise Song for Everett


This is new for me: this distance.

This is what I know of you
so far: one picture.

This is what I do not know
yet: How you sleep on someone’s
lap; which one of your brother’s
you cry like, or if you’ve come up
with a whole new way to go
about it; how you grip a pinky
extended to you; the color of your
eyes; if you cry when I pick you up.

I have not picked you up.

I know one more thing: a name:
Everett. A cowboy name!
An outlaw name if ever there was one.
I see you on horseback,
Everett. I see you learning
the names of wild country flowers.

I can’t yet see myself there with you
because the buildings are huge
where I am. And, Everett, there
are so many of them.

Maybe I know one more thing:
When you finally decided to come
into the world, you did it fast.
I have always been more thought
than action; early on you appear
to be the other way around.
What do you think, though, Everett,

now that you are here?
Take your time with this one,
it might take some getting used to.

Or, fuck it, burn your way through it,
fast as you came; take it in one
bite. Don’t think, just ride.
You can tell me about it when
you finally fall asleep in my lap.

For now, let me tell you what I think:
I am shocked that the world keeps
offering things that make me believe in it.