she says “mr”
but I pronouce it "mister"
hear it the way pink nasty and will oldham sing together
a tried response: “okay miss”
no, not really
“yes ms….”
better maybe
and sometimes I like to imagine that time goes backwards one hour at a time, some of them in records and record-keeping, some in movies, theaters, trains rounding off the tops of mountains
or all the way back to high school, “excuse me ms., that hour in 11th grade when you were sitting on the grass by yourself at lunch right as the day started to warm on your skin, what were you thinking”
or can you tell me about the first hour you spent with anyone you eventually fell for
or what was your favorite early day mining entrance
or sickly lights and sugar water

I’ll trade,
for instance, I can tell you about every hour in which I’ve broken a bone. during the first one I was a rocket ship in the front yard of a house that no longer exists. houses then, like the warm hands that hand you something in a soft childhood hour, die. during the last one I was in golden gate park, it was one of the many sweats we get that let us forget, good groans and the places we go even though we’re not sure of welcome, another falling or fell into, another rocket ship landing, eyes around the room, but still, that’s my idea of pluckiness

now,
sound-triggers
pull-backs
or perhaps things just happen
either way I’ve buried the lead so let me begin again,
my last favorite was in may, a street in the east village, not paying attention, the way the air moves down an possibility, talking to someone just met, we wanted to talk, we knew something already, we heard the background and the heat unbuttoned our jackets and the street will never have a name which is okay because we, or maybe me, keep track of too much, and this, like the leaving that would come hours later in brooklyn outside a bar where he said “it was good to meet you” while the subway raised a glass to the just then religion, and a drip from the ceiling, mouths full and emptying out your pockets onto the top of the dresser in the dark