Poem For Massachusetts Poem by Matthew Zapruder

these days
sometimes you sleep
in a purple t-shirt
that says Massachusetts
which means something
in an older language
I can never remember
for one whole year
before I knew you
driving down Route 9
thinking nothing
seemed so hard
I just kept singing
stay with the plan
each time it felt wronger
which is a word
adults pretending
to pretend
to be childlike use
I heard it one
time when the leaves
in a drawing
someone I don't
know anymore
handed to me
were blue it was
how sick she was
I should have known
her long fingers
shook all summer
green chlorophyll
covers up the colors
all the tourists
in the fall
later come to see
I can't tell you
how many people
in the making
of the experience
that made this poem
were harmed
sometimes leaves
are an emblem
meaning an object
symbolizing something
abstract like glory
or destruction
and sometimes
just sunlight
delivery systems