I saw her last near water

That nice girl from the dock,

the one with the eyes and the head behind the moon.

You didn't kiss her,

'cause you were a coward, and now—

She's left her skin all over the road.

A red trail and a fuck-up

dragged her into the sticks.

There's a fella I don't remember.

He's stinking drunk and all of seventeen,

watching her breaths get harder

for hours and hours.

Those big eyes go still sometime in the night,

and at least she's free of that.

Soon, I'll have thought of that moment

for longer than she was alive.