On Joe's Birthday, a Collaboration with Steve Carey
or stunned with numerous local papers
where the buttered world has carried us
the ash fallen off the cigarette
in days so careless we had millions of health in the bank
just as I dreamt it
the dream of restoration
upstairs the man has come back
& all I can do is step over
a fluttering of clues
a calendar of conditions
for reappearance —
it is green all around
there is love all around
in a northern town
Elinor Nauen
August 13, 2020
published December 13, 2020, on what would have been Steve's 75th birthday.
Steve Carey, Poet (1945-1989)