Substance

Drawers

hanging

off their hinges

are chicken litter

are anti

matter

 

Empty chairs

are time and tide

are burdens

shifting

shape

like water

_

Asides

 

In a dream

I took

(my husband)

 

(to)

your apartment

 

looking for

proof

of

(a different) life

 

all the pictures

you had

were of your brother

 

But you’d saved

(a colony of chittering mice

for) me

_

Order

The body is meek

weak

 

The winter is deep

deeper than water

 

Liquid with drink

are eyes, are ayes,

are yes

_

Fragment 1

Singing you who have lost it

tell me where you will find it

 

Inside his chest

the chirp of birds

inside his breath

 needles of air

_

Time was / Time is past

delight wheels like prayer

flinging night like doubt

on the parapet of dawn

our details are all spent

Nine

She knows that

the child and his friend

--another child--

read her words.

 

She hides small

messages

of hope

and love

 

Hardy as pebbles

as natural

shaking like leafy hands

on summer trees.

_

To the Sea

Water alive with the shuffle of crabs

my body rolled over by the waves

then cleaned to sea change

grotesque as rags,

familiar as reeds

coral laced up by eels

 

But brilliant showers

of triumph

of clarinet

Of abruptness--

steps missed in the dark.

Then the piano bares its teeth.

_