Stuffed Monkey Farewell Under The Rug

From pacific station
I walked the muddy banks of the San Lorenzo
Climbed down to the place where
We used to kiss beneath the bridge

And I cradled your one last thing
I’d kept for all these years
Felt tears roll into my beard
As it spindled away
Into the rivermouth
Then out to sea

I bit off my fingernail
When I saw its bobbing monkeytail below the scum
Sent a piece of sensitive mail
To the wrong place
Watched the mailman drive away

I dove in with my hoodie on and my hood filled up with goo
A piece of kelp got my leg and held me until I resigned my shoe
I met eyes with a passing gull, laughing from
Up above
And as if in some laugh-track bit, it snatched up its tail
And then it vanished
Behind the bluff