Climb from Boots by Noe Venable

can you hear me?
I don’t love anybody else
keep you near me
just like I try to keep myself near

all the givers
and all the rivers in the world
cannot quench it
the arid desert that you
bring to everyone you know

I see you counting lovers in the street
I see you kissing anybody’s feet
you are a kitten caught up in a tree
I see you climb away

tiny birdling
scrambling for any scraggy tree
I am thinking
you make your nest where none can be
in the summer
the streets are waving in the heat
I am thinking about the water that you keep
in the corners of your mouth

climb away

I see you counting lovers in the street
I see you licking anybody’s feet
you are a kitten caught up in a tree
you are unreachable by me
I see you climb away

• Ecto
• Folk
• Progressive
• chamber folk
• San Francisco