a blue stroke
across beige paper

a river cleaves
two banks

look at this place
the contorted

topographies
red dirt roads

like open veins
and muddied waters

the stars at night
are big and bright

where does it come from
this possessiveness?

to take establishes
the precedent of loss

so choose
your hypotheticals

carefully–
why don’t they, if only

then the golden door
would open

simple, easy
another girl got swept away

in the Rio Grande,
how tragic, if only–

oh happy fourth,
tell me again

about manifest destiny
how all this was surely earned