I.

i met texas on the roadside next to a cow farm / he kissed me on my cheek & traced my jaw with straw fingers / i realized then, that he was a scarecrow / pumpkin brow bone furrowed / rotted eye sockets creased at the edges / i reached / let me hold you / he flinched / my palms -- fleshed & skinned / meat hugging the bone / i suppose i looked threatening to him / the way my index molded into the barrel of a shotgun / but he took my gunpower hands in his / licked my fingertips until his pulp was dry / carved a seed out of his neck and asked me to cross my arms across my body / the way I do in catholic churches because I was baptized and born again with the right savior in the wrong way / he pressed the seed against my forehead / texas blessed me / and i bled stars / out my nail beds /  he wiped them off my new & babied skin / & closed my eyes / when he lifted his fingers, the straw pressed red into my cheek / i stretched thin / in the elbow of a wide country sky / i met texas on the roadside next to a cow farm / he kissed me on my cheek and turned me into something of myth 

II.

my parents were engaged 

under the lights of a willie nelson concert

i think this must be why 

he came to me in a dream 

and asked me to improvise a vow 

to the dirt in my fingernails 

because it will live on this earth 

much longer than i will