You bring spray roses, burnt orange

back to Texas, the dog stream & photographs
multiple now at issue

& a blown-glass fish
glued to the bottom

I let the cup stand for me
though it’s tarnished & painted
with inedible paint

Thinking of your customs
in the morning having dreamt

of an impregnable castle
good-natured people armored

lined up, carrying stones, The air’s
still cold

I’m on the porch with H & B
sky’s loosening, seeming green, then green

later a protest, D in the cab of a truck
chanting,You see me

You see me, your knee against the back
of my knee then what we say

disappears quietly, like this, my voice

does this, becomes itself,
then nothing, Back at home at your place

the light’s off & I tell you about my body

Peeks Orion is a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop. They are a poet, translator, bartender, poetry instructor, immigration paralegal, and stepfather to their roommate's cat, Kiara. Their poems are forthcoming in DIAGRAM, Guesthouse, and the Spectacle. You can find more of their work at orionallen.com.