Business Life

getting on with the business of life
she said
after all has been mouthed over,
parsed, diagrammed,
pureed and strained
to a consistency that is easy
to take
see how it dribbles, into the jar,
all the old words and troubles
minced beyond recognition

a fine jam, to put away and let
pickle, slowly,
the sour taste is acrid, it burns,
it is familiar
yet,
put it away, jar it sealed tight with
waxy blobs coalesced wartlike
over the seams
and get on with the business of
life

the getting and spending, laying
away provisions, antlike, for
cloudy, unspecified futures to come,
lining a paper nest with black
words on it, reassuring script,
old stories to warm one, to warn one

the living and reliving, repeating
pattern in a garment, first swirl
this way, then that, be that precise
red, then orange, then blue, as
predictable as DNA replicating over
and again, gene-true

getting on with the business of
life
the repeated motions, walk
here, then there,
turn and spin,
ask a question,
be silent-safe,
cunning close, wax-sealed