Carbon dating

on Bjork's "Human Behavior"


i.

Predictably bachelors
count bones
then count toward
conception, a pulse

messed up,
dated,

Kyle says,
the pillowcase won't survive my lifetime,
Modern men have no cake batter.

An eye
after direction, looking,
hmm? teasing?


ii.

Isotopes are science.
Radioactive atoms count

14 Phoenicians
applied to a formula.
Carbon fires the horse,

the bomb. We base

science on oranges.


iii.

As radio toward a radio--
equalizing, breathing
cinnamon,

I say the predictable
line. Later, on his chest
I spill
the little wasps.

Hand stilled, his eyes
damp:

table love, and and


iv.

Rational (as they are) bones
count fires, survive
generations.

Time will be hard.

Boxers, not looking, trust
what you trust:

His hand, His highway...

His curse:
anything now
but gently. Let's try
to break bones.