One Season - Tony Hoagland

Note: this poem uses the term 'spastic' in an offensive and inappropriate manner. I am posting it because I care about the poem at large, but your mileage may vary.

"One Season"
Tony Hoagland

That was the summer my best friend
called me a faggot on the telephone,
hung up, and vanished from the earth,

a normal occurance in this country
where we change our lives
with the swiftness of hysterical finality

of dividing cells. That month
the rain refused to fall,
and fire engines streaked back and forth crosstown
( towards smoke-filled residential zones )