Dear others, are you there?

A flare.

The weather pushes itself on today like a friend

with a big mouth who knows a big surprise.

I dangle my bare feet in the barest puddle of me.

Even your starboard sides are aware of me.

I from my small bench am drafting a treaty:

grant amnesty to these articles as I take them off

and throw them into the water,

again when the water

dutifully lolls them towards you.

It’s true that lately I haven’t been looking

at enough monumental structures and saying, See

what people are able to do without even touching.

How exciting! A misunderstanding.

Can you blame me? From here every last

bit of you appears as a white flag.