I vowed I'd quit ciggies on the heel of the mother
Of all hangovers. The world at noon pulsed a first
 
Columbus Ohio spring day. I'd fallen in love
Of course, as recently as chem lab and held
 
The ghost of her smell
In my clothes. Or lips
 
If I'd been lucky. My blood thunk
Thunk-thunked, the way a cut feels
 
As you bend to tie shoes. The way life
Tingles the first day it breaks loose
 
To crawl your skin. Dizzy,
I ran through milky sap and
 
Sycamore-leafed streets, mixing the smells
Of just-thawed earth with essence of girl
 
My blood steamed. I understood lost-at-sea as glamorous
Isolation, the way a hummingbird's movement through two
 
Eye blinks allows it to vanish and
Re-appear. My wings blurred hinges
 
Among worlds. Nothing held me. Nothing
Could catch me. I'd run this way forever.