Poetry by Kennedy Tabor

DIPHENHYDRAMINE

im not gonna meet the hat man hes gonna meet me &
him n me are gonna do something cool like
       drive around all night through the fields and
       listen to each others music and
       see if we can hit 120 on the straight stretches
me n the hat man are gonna be best friends like
       sleepovers where we decorate cupcakes and
       share clothes and
       go halfsies on drugs
the hat man n i have our own special handshake its like
       fist bumps and spins and high fives

i ask him one night if he ever thinks of lizards n he says
       i think of lizards like i think of you
i ask what that means n he says
       i think of the desert
       i think of
              tiny claws clinging on
              scaly skin shaded spots
       i think of windstorms gritty blinding
       & i think
              of you always always i think of you
              you :
                     lizard & sand & sun
                     cacti & drought & more stars than you can dream of
                     burning & blinding &

i love the hat man im glad he met me
i rest my head on his shoulder
       in the desert

              we wear linen

THOROUGHBREDS

racehorses are all born on
       january first
they’ve got
       walnut-sized brains and
       frail little cannon bones and
       drink so much water that a man could drown in it.

i love to do cartwheels in the grass i
wish i could teach a horse to cartwheel so that we could
       tumble together
       sideways

i wish i were born in a manger with
horses blowing warm air over me they
       greet each other by standing with
        their nostrils together and exhaling
              deeply
       and when they meet again they
              recognize the other
              through his breath.

i want clarity
       & cartwheels when
       horses colic they lie down and roll to
              try to alleviate the pain in their stomachs but
       the rolling motion of the horse causes
              his intestines
                     to tangle
              and he dies
                     from the inside out.

the fragility of horses &
       the way i throw my body around i am
              tiny i think but
       the horse
              at times
              is so much smaller.