Talking to Strangers

this year will make crones of us all

& write down new addresses

on scraps of junk mail & receipts

autumnal bears that sing to crows

lonely round dance songs

along with markers of social anxiety

free from pollutants , single blessing

migratory birds and lanternflies

each morning fill the treeless terrace

in resistance to my neighbor's voice

in recitation of his treatise on sexual

orientation to include undoctored

chevrolets

passages left abandon

ships in re-branded cocktail hours

singing La Marsaillaise

it's not alchoholism, as

long as you have

cheese & crackers