What If I Get a Prompt for a Poem I Have Already Written

JULY 4TH
(In the Year of the Terror)

The news is bad, they say
Charlie emails that he’s loading up the car
“Head north,” he writes, “we’ll meet in Alberta.”
I go to the bookshelf
grab my copy of Blake in its stained plastic cover
take my raincoat from the closet
Olson, Whitman, Emily Dickinson
look for my passport, warm shirts, jeans
Barbara Holland, Kerouac, Bob Kaufman
pack up all the spaghetti, rice, flour
Han Shan, H.D., Audre Lorde
my tool box, boots
Eileen Myles, cummings, my own books
what’s left of the bourbon; water jugs, coolers
my current notebook — & the one just before
Charlie is in Chicago, a head start to Canada
I’m in a rush:
toss all my pens in a box, blank notebooks
some towels rolled up in my sleeping bag
almost forgot:
Paul Blackburn, Sappho, Cafavy
a gas can & the tire pump
Corso, yes, & Against Forgetting
I’m ready to go!
–if I need to
but for now
I sit back
open a beer
and wonder, who did I forgot?