For he will only write the poem

HOW PROOF ARRIVED

THAT I DIDN'T CARE FOR THEIR MONEY

            --for Wes Hanson

A series of short poems after coming

from the bank with my account closed

due to inactivity, I catch up on email.

It's the pleasure of the doing,

the practice, she says. Imagining absences.

Another friend, the one who only corresponds

in poems, wails over manufactured

Christmas correspondence. He reminds

me of Jesus spitting to make mud cakes

for the blind man's eyes. How can I

tell him how much I love his poems

righteous in his tears for a bleeding planet?

jim

January 9, 2020