Eastern Telescopes

 I’ve been looking at you

Through eastern telescopes

From so far away
So that I couldn’t see

Anything

That would make me

Rip up this plane ticket

And tell myself

I’m better off

Staying right

Where I am

I’ve been talking about

The way

The stars hit your surface

And the dust kicks up

Where the rocket ships land

And how the oceans you have

Are made of something

Lighter than water

But I never thought

About the craters

And the canyons

And the places

Where the darkness

Is so deep

The light gets lost in it

Somebody went to hand me

Another telescope

And I told them--

‘Thank you, but no’

Because even though
I didn’t know

For sure

What I would see

I knew what I wouldn’t see

I wouldn’t see something

Telling me

That this was going

To end well

The spots on you

That look like

The blood that went

Into the hall
The night my nose

Got all my bloody
And you wouldn’t let me

Call my sister

To come drive me

To the hospital

You were worried

About what she would think

And I thought--

Yeah, he doesn’t hit me

But everybody thinks he does

And so what does that say

About what we got

Going on here?

And when you moved

To the moon

I thought I was free

But I was just free

To take my time

Practicing my bullshit answers

About why we hadn’t

Called anything off yet

One night a guy

An old friend

Came by for a drink

And I knew I had my chance

Because the betrayal

Was sitting right there

Behind the beer cans

In the fridge

But that’s not how

I wanted to end

Something

That should have never

Started

I wanted to see

If I could have

The kind of quiet closure

Only really lucky people

Get to have

Where I come from

Things end

With somebody in jail

Or icing their cheek

On the back porch

Out back is where

I keep the telescope

My sister bought me

When she went to that museum

In New York

Not big

Not big enough

To get a good enough look

At anything

Even if you point it

Just right

But a telescope

Is like anything else

When it’s in

The wrong hands

You can see what you’re looking for

And tell yourself

The asteroid coming at you

Is never going to hit

I’ve been looking at you

In every way

That works

Against my better judgment

But it still looks so pretty

That’s the thing

About the bad parts

Of a moon

You’re still looking

At the moon