THE LAST YEAR

the last year she was beautiful she set sail across the plain
with a compass and a six pack and nobody at the reins
pure horsepower
and all the wide and gleaming land caught in the boundaries of her wanderlust
every road map ripped up by her hand adding up to prove that she was finally lost
but it was only just beginning

and the last year she was beautiful she turned the mirrors to the walls
sat down with a scissor and a glue pot she set out to recombine it all
nothing pure about it
and all the features and the facts they look so stupid when you flip them on their backs
like horses with their hooves up in the air
like she had come to the absolute end of caring
but it was only just beginning

and the last year she was beautiful everybody said remember when
the world was kind and green and blind and free back a generation or two or three
pure as the driven horse driven to it’s knees
and all the righteous and the wicked caught up in each other’s definitions
all nostalgia and all prophesy adding up to prove that this is finally the last year
but this is only just beginning

spring 98 Memphis
© myshkin 1999