Mark Stevick
Back Porch, Evening
8:00, perhaps. Windowlight
glints in the wineglasses. Cheap sangria,

red in the belly. And cheap cigarettes.
It is afterward; leaves, then chimes. We are canoeing.

Here three houses are close, and three trees.
Now, again, leaves lift, an aftermath.

Let me settle here with you, like houses,
with leaves about us.