Barred

barred-photoThey took you away
 In handcuffs today
 In the boat,
 On the water,
 Under a reservoir sky.

I get in my car
 And buckle down
 Through three
 County lines,
 Foothills and fog
Coming down
 Old Freezout Way—
 All that space
 so much
 Space
I reached for your hand
 Prevention
 Shares a pillow
 Asleep
 in a room
You once called out ‘Next to,’
 And you
 In your cold cell
 Call
 collect
To say that you’re fine.
 Our family lies
 Through a telephone line.
 So this
 is home for awhile?
 Really?
When I laugh
 I hear – in my head first, the reverb,
 The long hour fielding shadows,
 Walking
 the worn path
Of old carpet. I was with you today
 And hardly--
 Alone in my head,
 in a car port,
In hallway instead, awaiting
 The next time we embrace
In distant cold.
 Detached
 and bound
 through strangling wire