tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-269815742024-03-13T20:07:29.511-07:00McCarra / PoetryMcCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.comBlogger525125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-75161460156379356272019-12-08T13:47:00.000-08:002019-12-08T13:47:06.353-08:00Twenty Poems / November 2019
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">When We Still</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">once
upon a time, when we still</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">believed
in happy endings, the ice</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">cracked
beneath our boots in the </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">parking
lot, spring still to come, those</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">flowers
garlanded through your hair</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
your voice so far, so far away</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
fading away as if caught and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">carried
by the wind, scrambling your</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">syllables
as the tines of the fork thrust</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">through
the stew, vegetable matter chopped</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">none
too fine, yet we shall not </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">choke,
I think</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
three wishes given and gone, the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">finger
pricked, used to pen some</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">scarlet
script, a crimsoned syllabus</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">brightening
her eyes, cheeks rosered</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">lilywhite
by turns</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Alpha and Omega</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">In
the beginning, when all was new,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
you and I and the green shoots</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">looked
up at the sun, there</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">was
no need to jockey for position,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">snarling
at this one, spitting at the</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">other,
smearing and slandering all</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
day long, the hecklers from</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
penny-seats, delighting in the</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">murky
depths they could sink to, as</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">if
a moray eel with razor-teeth, lurking</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
the brackish waters, brother to that one </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">beneath
the feet of a woman, crawling forever</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">upon
his belly, lowest of the low, while</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bully-boys
clear the room with a cane,</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">rigging
outcomes with a heavy hand,</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">laying
the lies on, thick as buttercream</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">on
teacakes studded with pretty pills.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">still,
my alpha and omega, as </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
green leaves have changed to </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">scarlet-gold,
crimsontipped, blood-orange, burning</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">up
into the blueskies, flametrees flagrant, the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">truth
of the season shifting.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The sky is </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">not
black because someone says</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">it
is so.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I will believe</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
evidence of</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">my
eyes.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Triune Themed</span></b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">morning,
noon, and night these</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">three
muses (Calliope, Erato, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Thalia)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">inspire
new ways to utter those</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">three
little words we let slip</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">after
a late dinner and</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">too
much wine, inspiring tercets in</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">triplicate,
the three sandwiched sheets</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
paper, carbon, and paper again</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">dusting
fingers with soot, dust you are and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">dust
you will return to, so says Father, </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Son,
and Holy Ghost, the triune</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">God
blessed when the trifecta lines</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">your
pockets with green, triple digits this</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">time
and you bless the gods and</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
muses three, informing your words, the</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">beginning,
middle, and end of all our histories, </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
love, loyalty, and friendship gold-emblazoned</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">upon
your hand and heart</span></div>
<br />
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Night Missive</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">written
to memory, in the dark, one letter at </span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
time, then separating phrases like</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sheep
from goats, wheat from chaff,</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">engaging
in verbal</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">gymnastics,
the turn of phrase to turn</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
eye to the next page, and the next. Is</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">this
chatter made up of the sparks from</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">stars?<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>More likely from the thin strip of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">gold
where the door (nearly)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">closes,
a glimmer of brilliance, words, like pearls,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">strung,
one after another, amidst the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">slumping
shadows of upholstery, curtains, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">clothing,
the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">clobber
of an acquisitive nature.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">tomorrow:
to seek out the blue box</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">mushroomed
at a corner, or mid-block, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">brighter
than their green, stolid cousins, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">squat
above a slab of concrete.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">see
here: the rain, puddled, magnifies the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">words,
those restrictions on weighty</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">prattle,
tied in brown paper and twine,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">destined
for pawing by a thick-fingered</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">clerk
in baby blue, hazardous words indeed</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">At Sixes and
Sevens</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">ah,
the rivulets of tea streaming from</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">upended
crockery, the jam</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">smeared,
half upon the toast</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
half upon the cloth, the boiled</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">eggs
ill-timed and runny,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">all
at sixes and sevens, both as</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">cross
as two sticks, so she says</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">let’s
close our eyes, dear,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
start again, afresh,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">before
we espy the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sun
peering through those</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bare
branches, spindly and austere</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
silent disapproval</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">The Orchestra
Tunes Up</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">discordant
tones merge into</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">one
seamless melody, the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">pitching
strains</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">woven
together tightly, stitches</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
a jumper, head pushed through</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
neckhole as if being </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">born
again, hair askew, tempest</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">tossed
as if blown by sea </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">winds,
the melodies borne</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">along
by night air, buffeted </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
shaped by darkening clouds,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">rough
to make smooth</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Herringbone Dyed
and Spun</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">flecked
with the colors of seafoam and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">darkening
skies, herringbone dyed and spun,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">capacious
pockets that held </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sweets,
before they were scattered, like </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">rain,
for grandchildren to find (what wonders that</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">coat
held) redolent of pipe smoke twisting</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">up
on chill afternoons, fragrant-sweet,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">blue
furled up to cloud-thick skies.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">buttons,
like eyes, glint, a</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">winking
as he walked the miles to town, hard</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">to
keep up with his long stride, though</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">they
did their best,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">fabric
tightly woven, stamped with orb</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
cross, edges bound fast,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">shield
against cold and damp,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">surely
magical, even in frightening the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">scavengers
of the field, this</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">scarecrow
in his Sunday best</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Mirrored</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">perched
on an indigo banquette in a </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">mirrored
corner, a neat figure</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">is
reflected multiply as</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">she
peers into the oval</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
a smoothgold compact, sees the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">strangeness,
the sleek whorls of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
new coiffure, medusa-like, heavily</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">lacquered,
and jewellery </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">jangles
as she paws through</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">her
handbag for match and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">cigarette,
inhales, exhales,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">looks
through the looking-glass</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">into
worlds ever receding away,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">distant
reflections, so many of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">her,
so many it tires her,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">it
tires her,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
same face, the self-same words, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">over</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">over</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">over</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">may
I take your order?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Heel of the Loaf</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">smeared
with clots of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">blackcurrant,
riven by</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">silvered
flash of butter</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">knife
dragged across</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">this
odd endment, the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">heel
of the loaf, least</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">preferred
of all, square </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
sustenance, staff of</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">life,
give to us our</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">daily</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bread,
not the stones</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">we
choke on, or those</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">beneath
thin-soled shoes,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">navigating
the gravel of a</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">driveway
as the music</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">dies
down, picking steps </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">carefully
in moonlight, belle</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
the ball no longer, the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">clock
gone twelve and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">that
ancient moon looming down</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Billet-doux</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bundled
into a packet, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">ribbon-tied,
my worn edges</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bump
up against some neatly folded</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">patterned
squares of silk</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">I
imagine unfurled,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">knotted
round her neck,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
thin (but surprisingly warm),</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">barrier
against the cold.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">I
warmed her, once, on the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">coldest
days she endured, her</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">eyes
alight as they traced</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">each
word, whispering them</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">aloud
so that I, too, could </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">hear
them, the sloping scripts,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
twists and curlicues in</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">black
on white as ink</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">on
snow and my words wait,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">for
her,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">forever</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Golden Apples</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">three
golden apples gleaming</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">on
their silver bough</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">weigh
him down, lighter, still,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">than
his usual, worldly burden</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">gods
or men, the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">tasks
set to us are</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">to
be completed, even</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">as
we fly straight for the sun,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">slaughter
some beast, or</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">navigate
some pitching sea, you—</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">tossed,
a cork upon</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">waters
thick with trouble—what</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">can
we do, sometimes, except make</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">burnt
offerings of the dinner and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">light
candles the next day?</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Free As A</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bird
on a wire</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">chirping
cheerily, oh</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">so
cheerily through</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
morning routines</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">espied
through her</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">beadlike
eyes glittering</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">over
the yellow ribs</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
the bus-tops gliding past</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">broken
branches, the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sedans
streaking past the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">STOP
signs, grinding against </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
first frost—</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">with
a free leg and a </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">fine
day</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">shanks
mare into town</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Green, In Spite Of</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">at
the edge of the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">boneyard</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">green
grows up,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">unimpeded</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">unencouraged
except</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">by
occasional rains,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">dew
damping down those</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">stringy
roots, the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">shoots
reflecting back</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">dullness
of oxidation, redbrown</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">as
bloodstains</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">vigorous,
thickening, seeking</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">out
the rays of the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sun,
spreading out in</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">rude
health, thriving amidst</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
steady decrepitude,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">breaking
down, dying </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">all
around, signage worn</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">away
to a tracing, sun-</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bleached</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Turn the Page</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">turn
the page and there</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">he
is, eternal wunderkind,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">all
mouth and no trousers, in</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
four-color spread tipped into</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
Sunday magazine,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">declaiming
over his collection</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
antique silver salad forks, Adonis,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">he
of the chiseled brow and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">blue
eyes, head yet unbowed</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">turn.the.page</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">here
she’s been since</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">six,
juggling those golden apples</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
some sort of circus act</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">approximating
life—shot through,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">like
a Swiss cheese, Peckinpah-</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">style.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>she uses the streams to </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">write
everything down, an </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">undercurrent
of voice below the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">others,
narrator</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">keeping
everything aloft in spite of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(because
of?) her increasing</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">invisibility
(her next power) as </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">she
sees all</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">she
hears all</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">writes
it all down</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Light on Bloodorange</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">light
strains through </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
pane onto the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">bloodorange,
smoothed</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">wheat
colors, sleek grains, sun</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">magnifying
head through</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">transparency,
and we</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">ants
under the curving glass,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">enlarged,
our mandibles</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">grasping
and reflexing over</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">crumbs,
watching the play of</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">shadows
(while </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">one
wrenches one of their six legs off and</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">uses
it to beat another,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">all
the while howling “I</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">am
the most virtuous ant</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
all!) grimacing at the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">most
recent stain upon the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sidewalk,
hoisting glasses to </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">our
lips, brushing a spray</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
sandy sweet grains from</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">wood
bleached pale</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
he calls her by the name of another</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">and
she starts and says—yes,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">love
comforteth like sunshine</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">after
rain and light</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">streams
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
silent confirmation</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Plain Oatmeal
Porridge</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(Not Oatmeal
Deluxe)</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">half-cup
measure old-fashioned </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">cut
oats, one tablespoon of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">fine
white sugar into the steaming</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">copper-bottomed
pot (one cup water)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">splash
of milk</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">stir-STIR-stir,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">brisk
tines beating through</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
thickness of it,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">crown
with brown</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sugar
to melt into</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">puddles
of sweet</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">one
once penned</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">an
oatmeal poem—</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">creating
a woman of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
stuff—I have not</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">his
mystical</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">magic,
alas and alack,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">with
cereal grains</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">but
mine will yet</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">warm
the core, to</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">be
sure a </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">coarser
trick</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">Mudlarks at Midday</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">incidental
music of cutlery</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">upon
china, we trawl through</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">our
meal, speaking of the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">history
buried in riverbeds,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">thick
sediments unearthed by</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">mudlarks,
the particular resonance of </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">some
items, some</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">words,
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">reverberating
within the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">hush
of just-afternoon,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">white-aproned
waiters preparing</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">for
the caterwauling evening </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">to
come, everlastingly arranging glassware</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">(chink,
clink, chink)</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">each
memory an artifact</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">safely
stowed away, a </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">polished
stone, the green jagged</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">glass,
the dagger obscured </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">by
rust, the curved tab from a</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">fizzy
drink, fit to slice a finger</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">gleam
of silverware against </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">hemstitched
squares in the half-light,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">condensation
beading upon the glass, the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">insistent
writing upon the world, I, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">once
was here</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;"> </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">A Withering</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">too
soon, too soon, the bloom shrivels</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">on
the bough,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">icy
breath of winter</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">sending
a chill down</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
spine, longing for</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
warming green of</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">long
May days entwined, sinuous,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">heat
of June wreathing</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">round,
the conflagrations</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
July compete with</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">fireflies
darting</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">through
the sweet fug of</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">honeysuckle
thick along</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
road, fragrance, in memory,</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">forever,
though </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
flower withers</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">What Words, These</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">what
words, these, emblazoned</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">upon
cardstock or upon </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">muslin,
framed and hung</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">what
happy we, what</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">thankful
we, holding</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">hands
beneath garlanded</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">tables,
unseen, surprised</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">by
joy, shocked at that</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">this
world may yet reveal</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">In Every End</span></b></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
every end some</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">beginning,
the boots forced</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">across
the threshold, </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">hayfoot,
strawfoot, all</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">the
way into town, the </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">trees
receding behind </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">one
until, in caverns </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">of
brick and cement</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">an
end plonked on</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">a
chair, better to </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">survey
the scene while</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">coffee-drinking,
</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">words
thrust through the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">air
as arrows, some </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">missing
their target </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">entirely.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>No matter.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">in
the end what will</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">remain
of us except the</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">rapid-fire
of synapses, one </span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">after
the other, an endless</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; margin: 0px;">looping
of recollection</span></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0px;">
<br /></div>
McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-30021265169507904802019-06-26T19:10:00.001-07:002019-06-26T19:11:21.360-07:00Signs and Visions sometimes angels arrive,<br />
unannounced, unbidden, enunciating<br />
news of signs and visions,<br />
weighty as the gold chain<br />
sewed within the hem of<br />
a skirt of palest lavender knit from<br />
fine wool that, nonetheless, goes<br />
swoooooosh, billowed out<br />
by a wind gust while<br />
traversing some orderly midtown avenue,<br />
swallowed by grey and glass,<br />
goldleaf safely beyond<br />
the reach of sticky<br />
fingerprints, the small, still<br />
voice of the divine heard in spite<br />
of the grinding of tires upon<br />
grates, metal plates, the<br />
occasional manhole explosion,<br />
the interjections, interruptions, interrogations,<br />
and soot falls like snow<br />
upon her cheeks<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-53958616953482625842019-06-25T11:57:00.000-07:002019-06-25T11:57:30.163-07:00Closetsthe truth, predictably, lay<br />
somewhere in the middle, the<br />
jam in the sandwich, his face<br />
reflected in the knifeblade<br />
she used to smooth the<br />
preserve evenly as the feathered ones<br />
sang out their morning chorus, the<br />
sun cracking just below the<br />
horizon, fighting to be seen<br />
through the serried ranks of trees, flocked<br />
out in green, putting on their summer<br />
clothes, the long, lean look of<br />
winter put away, for a time, in<br />
mothballs<br />
<br />
what do we hide in our closets, in the<br />
jacket pockets, the stub-ends and fond<br />
failings we repeat, and repeat, the jingles<br />
used to lull ourselves to sleep, stasis<br />
cradled in memory-foam, remembrances<br />
wreathed about our brainpans, the twisted wires<br />
that even sleep will not unentangle?<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-57895737980585160102019-06-03T04:22:00.000-07:002019-06-03T04:22:19.861-07:00Mothwings mothwings folded into a<br />
matchbox, the transparent<br />
fluttering quelled to the<br />
quiet of a heartbeat, the<br />
galloping quieted for at<br />
least a moment, a<br />
brief respite in which the<br />
birds take over, weaving a<br />
song that falls from<br />
the trees<br />
<br />
ever never, never ever,<br />
the black pools open up,<br />
inky, and invite one to<br />
test the temperature, brace<br />
oneself for a taste, to<br />
breach the unknown<br />
<br />
ever never, never ever,<br />
heart beats, thick, the<br />
muscle sinewed over with<br />
scars, the striations that<br />
reveal past encroachments<br />
upon that sacred space<br />
<br />
pulsing and releasing, the<br />
language in hasty meters,<br />
ever never, never ever,<br />
to breathe again as<br />
once before<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-86135211043461193672019-05-30T18:41:00.003-07:002019-05-30T18:41:51.072-07:00Resurrect, 46-Adam <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5f_ASvAe-k/XPCGD-RX7YI/AAAAAAAACwA/5Z_Ncmkk0rU7zWgQ1UEhCJbeucRoeqXgACLcBGAs/s1600/229E6050-7BE9-4C60-AFE5-6F393036FF29.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1094" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-U5f_ASvAe-k/XPCGD-RX7YI/AAAAAAAACwA/5Z_Ncmkk0rU7zWgQ1UEhCJbeucRoeqXgACLcBGAs/s320/229E6050-7BE9-4C60-AFE5-6F393036FF29.jpeg" width="218" /></a></div>
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-7673899608712761482019-01-27T18:14:00.001-08:002019-01-27T18:14:26.000-08:00Back to Schoolcooling winds bring a<br />
portent of papers and<br />
bluelined copybooks,<br />
red pencil at the<br />
<br />
ready, she hesitates<br />
over his sentences,<br />
diagramming his declarations<br />
until the whole is<br />
<br />
broken down into many<br />
parts, each word a pearl<br />
of great price strung<br />
together by semicolons<br />
<br />
of gold, commas clarifying<br />
meaning, his intent true<br />
for all time, the starkness<br />
of clouds pressed against blue sky<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-6701234983993664012018-01-06T13:48:00.001-08:002018-01-06T13:48:52.877-08:00Practical Hands <div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">with
practical hands<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">she
strips the petals of the artichoke,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">braving
the thorns to reach the heart<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">and
hope, thinking not of those<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">evening
meals purely disdained, their<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">very
essence a botch-blotch upon florid china,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">twice-vitrified,
steeled through<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">fire,
furnace hellish, roaring<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">orange,
beating against the bricks, and, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">abstracted,
she registers the days, dates, she <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">has
had his kiss, a single<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">column
of black digits totted up as she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">strips
the petals away<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">to
reach the heart, that<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">green
secret of hope and love,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">ever
springing up, the spear-blade of<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">grass
snaking up between two slates of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">pavement,
heavy as gravestones, and<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">she
exhales as bleak<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">November
blows coldly into icewhite<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">December
and <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">forced
merriment in a public square<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">blared
over by klaxon horns, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">massed
crowds braying for a handful<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">of
sweets<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">so
much better, so much tastier, the<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">secret
heart of love at her core, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">when
all was<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">finally
stripped away,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">simmering,
as if bathed in the <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">light
of summer, the thick gold she<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">held
in her hands, proffered when<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">all
that was extraneous <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">had
been shorn away,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">leaving
the heart naked, ready for<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">the
tearing of teeth, the savoring <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">of
scent again, a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">marking
down of minutes, hours, weeks, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">months,
years, the curious timetable of <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">numbers,
scripted, catching together, all<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">a-tangle,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">a
fine mess of figures, and, in<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">each
one a thought, a pang, a <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">breath
lost, a tear shed, those<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">sins
of omission, venial, that dog <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">her
heels, snapping, unwilling yet to hear<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">ego
te absolvo,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">graceless,
stateless, a mote of dust<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">caught
for a moment in his glance<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">before
the wind bears her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">into
the back of beyond,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">the
eternal that is love, and love<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">only<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">too
long a sacrifice/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">can
make a stone of/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">the
heart/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">her
heart-stones clink-chink against each other,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">making
that bright music she rises to<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">each
morning, the cup glancing against the saucer,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">the
flames reaching up, blue-bright,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">under
the kettle, warm her face, her<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">flesh
is as many fields, her words a<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">dowry,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">her
touch a promise, unspoken still<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-62716411885461048192017-04-15T10:25:00.000-07:002017-04-15T10:25:03.760-07:00PrayerGoddesses of Midnight and Fog--<br />
do not hide me from the God of<br />
Bardship, but let him see me<br />
in my robes of blue and goldenrod,<br />
<br />
anxious for words to fete the ever-<br />
turning of the universe, a turning from<br />
dishonesty and indifference, the<br />
time is ripe, indeed, for those syllables<br />
<br />
to drop from the boughs of the tree-branches<br />
like fruit into my lap, bruised and<br />
sweet, to feed upon before I journey into<br />
the next world to seek advice from the ancients<br />
<br />
protect me from your brothers,<br />
that Trickster and the Vengeful one--<br />
make sure my steps, and fill<br />
my mouth with words for recitation<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-35087475268769637052017-04-15T10:20:00.000-07:002017-04-15T10:20:12.525-07:00Above the Fold"because I could not answer<br />
you before, because I<br />
could not answer you before<br />
I am calling you now. Are you there?<br />
Are you there?"<br />
<br />
"Painkillers? No. Nothing stronger<br />
than aspirin. What's happened,<br />
anyway; I was worried."<br />
<br />
scanning headlines, in the silence,<br />
behind the glass a sea of pink<br />
wool, unparted, in spite of<br />
the spouting of alternative facts<br />
she persisted, in spite of<br />
the clatter of night-time raids<br />
punctuated by the glare of torches<br />
<br />
"Well, will you have it seen to?<br />
Don't take aspirin; it thins the<br />
blood."<br />
<br />
eyes scan the words as<br />
his fall through the wires, those black upon the page,<br />
ink on pale newsprint, another<br />
county heard from, another<br />
cunning stunt reported on,<br />
another breach in the<br />
fabric of humanity, the<br />
threads tearing away as if<br />
perforated by a thousand<br />
thrusting knives, the numbers of the dead<br />
totted up in neat columns<br />
<br />
"Use heat, or cold, is it,<br />
to relieve the pain? Heat,<br />
I think, is the thing to try."<br />
<br />
fingers blackened by the<br />
smear of the banner<br />
headline, all those headless<br />
bodies in topless bars piling up<br />
while Hizzoner watches his<br />
approval ratings<br />
and she wonders whether it<br />
would be different, now, if<br />
Dewey had defeated Truman<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-28261054208041884892016-12-30T10:15:00.003-08:002016-12-30T10:15:57.958-08:00Seasonal Offerings<div class="_1dwg _1w_m" style="font-family: inherit; padding: 12px 12px 0px;">
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<b>Exodus</b></div>
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the exodus of the child into<br />a foreign land<br />is not so strange</div>
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it happens, every day, though the<br />faces of the tax collectors and<br />the soldiers change</div>
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the journey, so tiresome and<br />wearying,<br />waiting to see which way<br />the wind blows, depending<br />upon dreams and visions,</div>
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creased heavily with cares,<br />last-minute luggage packed hastily, but<br />the baby gifts placed carefully<br />at the bottom of the case,<br />redolent of riches, incongruous,<br />strange, yet predestined</div>
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<b>Seasonal Photograph</b></div>
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the image of you, a year<br />older, taken in a State park in<br />the blazing sun is most un-Christmas-like,<br />though bordered by bells, tinsel, and holly</div>
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the green of cactus behind you, the<br />red of your pocket handkerchief will<br />have to do, the marking of another<br />year of lines, told in your visage, of<br />the ordinary passage of time</div>
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balanced by the words of some ancient hymn<br />of celestial words and promises as<br />familiar as your intake of breath, the<br />tapping, impatient, of your fingers, as the<br />days tick down towards puddings and<br />roasts, the blank boxes, bereft again of<br />their silken ribbons, their work done</div>
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<b>Journey</b></div>
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we come, bearing gifts, across<br />deserts, green-brown patchworks of fields, guided<br />by those stars we seek out, blazing<br />away like the fire stoked in the<br />furnace, warming hearth, and home, and<br />heart</div>
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and we wait, too, for the<br />cards carrying the annual weather report, proud<br />robin preening in his gilt border, puffed<br />out breast a drop of blood against the<br />snow, (when seen at a distance), scent<br />of balsam and pine surrounding one,</div>
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the ranks of gingerbread soldiers<br />amassing in air-tight tins, raisin-studded,<br />crisply brown and fragrant, promising<br />that Christmas will, indeed, return, as</div>
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surely as the clock tolls twelve and the<br />candles are extinguished only to be<br />lit again, light piercing through darkness,<br />needle through the dark cloth in which<br />we were shrouded</div>
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<b>Natal Star</b></div>
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His natal star rises still,<br />Eastwards, beacon-bright, burning<br />through the fog like a hot<br />knife through butter cut into<br />the pudding, fruit-thick, we stirred<br />and wished upon</div>
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and herself only half-done<br />with the Christmas shopping,<br />moving, so, from dark into<br />light, she loops great<br />strands, twinkling round<br />her wrists, her reflection tinsel-ribboned</div>
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for the Christmas:<br />baking great cakes of currants<br />and ginger, fragrant as<br />the first gifts to<br />an infant child<br />smiling upon us after<br />Adam stumbling and<br />spilling all those apples<br />upon the earth</div>
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and bang—go the<br />crackers<br />and bang—go our<br />hearts<br />when we realize<br />His saving grace</div>
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moving from the basement<br />crawlspace with the boxes,<br />back into the light,<br />bearing gifts from their hiding places—<br />and out of wrapping paper again,<br />and down to the shops,<br />and the post office,<br />and the grocery,<br />to pile up gifts of grace,<br />perhaps, for Him</div>
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<b>Angel Voices</b></div>
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these celestial hordes, their angel<br />voices disturb the air pearl-thick with fog<br />obscuring distant lights, the glowing orbs<br />strung, necklace-like, along the dip<br />and rise of the metal spines of a<br />distant bridge</div>
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while we wrestle with rolls of paper,<br />order hampers of food and the<br />first snow, potently mixed with rain,<br />lashes against the pane, window into<br />the world beyond</div>
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corners squared off by telephone lines,<br />the demarcation of bordering hedges<br />overhung with lights boldly emblazoning the<br />way of that jolly old housebreaker,<br />stolid redsuited fellow, spreading good<br />cheer and leaving a trail of crumbs<br />in his wake, the glasses of milk only half-drunk<br />in his haste, best of all<br />houseguests with his wink and his<br />waddle, father of Christmas forgiving even<br />the naughtiest of children (so<br />that no one, ever, receives coal<br />anymore) given the new benchmarks,<br />progress reports, and<br />projections for the next quarter,<br />everyone given the benefit of all our<br />doubts,<br />ripe for self-improvement in six easy steps</div>
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<b>Vigil</b></div>
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so the silks and lace rustle,<br />perfume rising, warm on this<br />vigil night, the<br />long lists gone over twice and<br />twice again, the unlovely long<br />weeks of January pushed further<br />from the mind in favor of</div>
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this candlelight and the petals of red flowers<br />in flaming circles bordered by green,<br />suffused in pinescent, thickribboned,<br />again, in red and the<br />organ resounds with familiar<br />strains and dark is made light again,<br />night made day and<br />the gifts are opened with a<br />snip of the ribbon the<br />next morning, the carpet littered<br />with a thickness of paper waded<br />through like fall leaves, the<br />scent of breakfast hanging heavy in<br />the kitchen, the<br />pot scalded, again, for tea</div>
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<b>Angel Wings</b></div>
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out of the Christmas box she<br />comes, again wingless, her<br />angel wings must be glued on,<br />glued on, glued on, every year for as long<br />as he can remember, her winsome<br />red-painted mouth puckered into a<br />bow, about to bestow a kiss eternally</div>
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wings drying, in a safe spot, she<br />waits for Christmas roses to<br />bring the bloom to her cheeks again, the<br />hothouse flowers crowded thick<br />amongst the lilies and the hyacinth,<br />not for them the four smooth walls of<br />a cardboard box—no they are<br />born to glory only to die and rejoin the<br />earth, while she stares on, blue-eyed,<br />golden haired, forever in an attitude<br />of arrested flight</div>
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<b>Lights in Winter</b></div>
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lighting the candles we remind ourselves<br />that the winter is but a long<br />night and that the heat of<br />summer, spent basking, like a<br />lizard, in the sun, will come again<br />and the green proliferation obscuring the<br />blue of sky, that too, will return</div>
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the miracle of light that<br />pierces darkness,<br />the flash of a jeweled brooch piercing a coat,<br />glinting beneath an electric light, small<br />suns to remind us of<br />that largest sun breaking through<br />the darkness to light our way</div>
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<b>Sugared</b></div>
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tinted granules of sugar melt<br />and harden into pools of<br />green and red, the colors of the spring we<br />are promised throughout the<br />darklong weeks of winter, the<br />berries bloodred against the<br />white of snow, the shining snow<br />glared upon by the sun, the<br />sacrificial dinner of fat-<br />slaughtered goose upon the<br />table, while the sparrows peck<br />outside the door, hungry for a<br />few crumbs to drop down from<br />this heaven of munificence, the<br />rick-rack of apron twitches, striving always<br />for perfection, the candy stripes echoing<br />those embroidered upon<br />the napkins, quick hands arranging<br />landscapes of cottonwool and mirror flecked<br />with iridescent specks, catching the beams from<br />twinned candles, waxy tapers slim, red, burning bright</div>
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<b>Bird of Dawning</b></div>
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the bird of dawning singeth all<br />night long and so<br />rends her rest to pieces,<br />shattered as the curved<br />metallic sherds on the carpet<br />fallen from her hands</div>
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reflecting on the<br />bells tolling twelve<br />singing, ringing, then<br />peace in the absence<br />of sound</div>
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needles fall silently, thick<br />with pinescent, unlovely side<br />pushed to the wall, garlanded<br />gold, crowned with a<br />single star</div>
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<b>So Much……</b></div>
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so much to do that even<br />an army of elves wouldn’t be<br />a help, better, so, to do it<br />on her own—who cares if it<br />takes all night, or occasions<br />comment on her listless eyes,<br />raised, again, at the sight<br />of the deliverymen, heavy-laden,<br />striding towards her door and<br />the hundred undone things unspooling<br />as the spindle of ribbon loosened and<br />tumbling down the stairs<br />tangling, finally, in the cat’s paws,<br />praying, sometimes, for the<br />peace of January</div>
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<b>A Chara, Mo Chroi</b></div>
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and you said you would be<br />sorry were the time to come<br />when my letters would not longer<br />reach your mailbox</div>
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and the annual letter arrives,<br />white as snow, ivory oblong, heavily stamped,<br />addressed in chickenscratch,<br />informing me that the trees,<br />fallen to some obscure tree-disease, have<br />been uprooted and, in their place,<br />new ones, a fast-growing variety, planted<br />down, black earth tamped thickly around<br />their roots, a promise of years to come</div>
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and now your voice is carried to<br />me through the howl of wind seeking to<br />breach the storm door as I wait, endlessly,<br />and would I could open the door to<br />receive you in, to jaw over old<br />landscapes, new-painted, the honeycomb of paths, squared,<br />we once walked, and this is<br />my Christmas letter to you, a chara, mo chroi</div>
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<b>Grey Pearl</b></div>
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grey pearl of sky draws<br />down around earth so<br />quiet-blanketed in white<br />footsteps are muffled and<br />all quiet save for the<br />occasional scrape of<br />metal against pavement<br />shuddering up</div>
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shrubbery bearded<br />in a temporary disguise<br />of white, icicles hanging from<br />the eaves a toothy grin<br />of cold</div>
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imperfect fields of green and brown now<br />perfected white, shine<br />back, glittering now, under the<br />sun, eye-blinding bright</div>
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<b>Blank Copy Books</b></div>
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another blank copy book opens, waiting<br />to be filled with copperplate<br />resolutions (before we’ve lost<br />everything but a stub of a pencil and<br />the back of an old envelope, only<br />slightly torn) and the rosy glow of<br />New Year’s dinner not yet worn off and<br />perhaps a freshclean blanket of snow<br />mirroring your newmade soul and<br />for at least one moment<br />all seems possible, and, maybe,<br />even likely</div>
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<b>Beneath the Constellations</b></div>
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beneath the constellations<br />bells are ringing, bells are ringing</div>
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beneath the starry skies<br />we are singing, we are singing</div>
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of that night so long ago,<br />of those words threading through</div>
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this tapestry of night, blue-<br />dark, lit by that singular star of</div>
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fire, heralded by<br />an angel choir</div>
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<b>Tangle-Thick</b></div>
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this tangle-thick of corded<br />lights confound one, yet we<br />persist, determined to<br />light the way of others<br />with garlands of red and<br />green and white-hot<br />illumination, pale cousins<br />of those new suns perpetually<br />being born</div>
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while deliverymen come, bearing<br />gifts, to the door</div>
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and the sphinx still stares,<br />impassive, across Egyptian sands,<br />under the thronging stars</div>
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<b>New Year</b></div>
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the song resounds: another year<br />done, another yet to begin</div>
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the muddied pages of the<br />desk diaries changed for new</div>
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the scrawls of March and<br />April as indecipherable as</div>
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Sanskrit to your tired eyes, the<br />days slipped by too fast, tied</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
up now with ribbons and good<br />intentions, the slipknots wound</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
round the needles, fashioning a<br />new garment for a new year</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
when all<br />shall be<br />in abundance</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
-------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Burning Daylight</b></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
burning daylight with those<br />ordinary tasks after the season<br />has expired and all is quiet:</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
jewel-bright ornaments, small<br />mirrors, placed back in their<br />boxes, egg-fragile, shimmering</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
crimson, gold, eggplant-purple, back to<br />the attic they go, their<br />service done for another year,</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
each burnished with a thick<br />layer of memory, of that year or<br />another, touched with tender hands,<br />supremest care</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
------------------------------------------------------------------</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit; margin-bottom: 6px; margin-top: 6px;">
<b>Our Song, Now Done</b></div>
<div style="display: inline; font-family: inherit; margin-top: 6px;">
and now that our song is<br />done<br />birds throng on the<br />boughs<br />angels stir the air<br />and<br />all will be merry<br />though the chill winds<br />blow<br />a fire leaps up<br />licking the coals<br />banishing sorrows</div>
</div>
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McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-24691253067195420882016-10-15T19:42:00.000-07:002016-10-15T19:42:31.849-07:00In Lightto awaken, finally, from a long sleep<br />
and see the dawn, at a<br />
distance, rosy, the small green<br />
plants forcing their way up between the<br />
paving stones, obstinate and unyielding<br />
<br />
then shake the ashes from your wings, a<br />
sparrow, if not a phoenix, quick and<br />
finely feathered, escaping that<br />
series of cages, stairwells,<br />
sinkholes<br />
<br />
to soar, free of your fetters,<br />
each journey starting but with one<br />
step, hardest in the bleak morning<br />
after the music has stopped, the<br />
reverberation turned to a death<br />
rattle, to turn away, then, and<br />
the floor, still unsteady beneath your feet,<br />
set your own course, being careful, of<br />
course, to skirt the sun<br />
<br />
lift off is the tricky part, the view from<br />
the summit, though, is worth the wait,<br />
greeted as an old friend, bereft of<br />
you for so long, the light of<br />
life in your eyes again<br />
<br />
see the stars, strung out like<br />
diamonds against the sky?<br />
each one is a wish. make those wishes yours.<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-69005543601473854112016-10-15T19:27:00.000-07:002016-10-15T19:27:56.291-07:00In Darknessfalling into the arms of sleep as<br />
she once did yours, the cold clasp<br />
of Morpheus quieting her feverish<br />
thoughts until she hears that<br />
click in her head that makes<br />
all go still. The words stop.<br />
the crack of ice floes in amber,<br />
held in her hand, the blur of neon<br />
across her eyes--she shakes her<br />
bottles like castanets and<br />
keeps time to the music--she<br />
won't let you in--it is<br />
all hers, winding, snakelike, sinuous,<br />
around her brainpan, and the<br />
needle-pricks spell out, in swollen<br />
flesh, help me, help,<br />
me<br />
my mother, my father, the silver<br />
spoon you gave me is blackened, flattened<br />
with this disease of mine<br />
that sickens me so, the<br />
desire that plays along my heartstrings,<br />
veins a conduit for rivers of<br />
poison, this dark desire suffocating<br />
every suffering moment<br />
and still I shake my castanets,<br />
count out the tablets like words<br />
of love, yes, yes, yes, my little<br />
my lovely ones, pale moons clattering away in your hollow music,<br />
the sound ever receding<br />
<br />
a finger points to the lines<br />
written in the sky: I have<br />
died a hundred times or more, it is<br />
an art, like anything else; I<br />
do it so well, with the thick<br />
finality finally muffling my words,<br />
closing off my mouth for all timeMcCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-44639566222334754292016-06-14T20:07:00.000-07:002016-06-14T20:07:44.910-07:00Cloisteredfrom pools of ink-black<br />
coffee in anonymous<br />
office buildings piercing the<br />
sky, some words are<br />
written during a lunch hour,<br />
then some more, and<br />
some more, savoring of<br />
the street, and music,<br />
and the tenor of the<br />
times and having a<br />
Coke with you I do<br />
not think of statuary,<br />
but of a kiss stolen<br />
in the Cloisters, next<br />
to the quiet tomb of<br />
some great lady, her<br />
solemn face in<br />
perpetual repose, her<br />
husband close by<br />
<br />
away from the din of<br />
the city, where the<br />
steel pierces the<br />
clouds, accepts<br />
his kiss, for better<br />
or for worse, as<br />
well him as another<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-86062692303105243872016-06-14T20:02:00.000-07:002016-06-14T20:02:09.324-07:00Noontimethe open skies look<br />
down upon the patchwork<br />
of green, brown, black<br />
ribbons of road newly<br />
dug, ever expanding<br />
veins to tap fields thick<br />
with wheat, alfalfa, corn<br />
<br />
the bounty of all that<br />
springs up here, the land<br />
arable, the water pure<br />
still, and the song of the<br />
birds clearly<br />
heard, the dawn chorus<br />
a prompting to the day's<br />
labor<br />
<br />
the land grown over with<br />
simple spires and towers, pointing<br />
heavenwards, the weathervane<br />
spinning to show what way<br />
the wind goes<br />
<br />
and generations are born<br />
and die<br />
and still the lilac by<br />
the dooryard blooms,<br />
redolent of the promise<br />
of spring, and, as we<br />
tend to the land, so<br />
she relinquishes her bountyMcCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-81006076394182052182016-06-14T19:55:00.001-07:002016-06-14T19:55:14.726-07:00Upon Arrivalsetting foot upon a<br />
foreign shore, black<br />
clad, starting the<br />
work of taming an<br />
unruly land, resolute, unsparing<br />
<br />
the stones dug out for<br />
fences, the land marked<br />
out in acres, trees crowning<br />
mountains, green parapets<br />
in this new Eden of<br />
forbidding landscapes,<br />
jagged jewels yet to<br />
be smoothed<br />
<br />
in this ever-expanding<br />
America neon often<br />
lights the way now, in<br />
place of the stars the<br />
pocked the sky, beacons<br />
to a better future, with<br />
bread and land for all,<br />
the story still undone, it<br />
goes on, unstoppableMcCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-90002026666266732072016-05-07T17:47:00.001-07:002016-05-07T17:47:20.111-07:00Untitled I, Untitled II, and Untitled III <div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">UNTITLED I<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">take me in your arms again
as<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">another spring is born from
winter<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">place your lips on mine and<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">overhead the birds shall<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">sing a song fit to break<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the heart<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">furrow-fields, lines
straight,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">without error, all too ready<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">for planting, dew-damped,
fading<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">into the distance, a horizon
opened up<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">until infinite, beyond all
our poor calculations<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">how long will it take for
the seeds<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to sprout? Only a skilled<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">farmer knows, winking and
peeking<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">at the sun as it rises and
sets, other<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">propitious signs well-known
to him, his<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">visage fairer than any other<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">and buds burst along the
branches,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">newly green, tight-folded,
waiting<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to be plucked<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> .....................</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">UNTITLED II<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the woman says: do not try<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to make me small; I am the <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">colossus who straddles the
earth<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">and engenders all that is
good,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">mother of all the world,
grown <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">out of the sea, though no<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">pillar of salt ground down<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to grace your table<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">no doll to be tucked into<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">your coatpocket, or a book
of matches<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">struck, one by one, their brightness<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">lying, extinguished, on the
landing,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">dimmed forever to a smudge
of ash<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">mother of all, subject to
none,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">rising above the lines of
littered phrases<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">meant to trammel her
in. No.
She <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">eludes these nets of
sarcasm, scar-casm,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">gleaming ivorygold, sinuous,
sailing off<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">to better waters<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> ...........................</span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">UNTITLED III<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">do not mourn me when I <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">am gone. Know that I am <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">with you yet in every sprig<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">of green you find beneath
your boot<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">each squawk of birdnoise,
each<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">crack of thunder, flame of
lightning,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">sudden wind stirring up the
leaves to <o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">dance in brittle circles<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">only tell the bees, so that
they will<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">not decamp from their hives,
that I have gone,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">and let them know of those
who will<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">voice the customary funereal
words,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">walking, stiff-suited,
noose-tied, in dark<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">clothes, pinch-shod,<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">mouthing forced formalities
through<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the fug of flowers, so
distant from<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">the sweeter noise of buzzing
hives<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<b><span style="font-family: "Courier New"; font-size: 12.0pt;">under the summer sun<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-8289000821464628112016-02-16T10:53:00.000-08:002016-02-16T10:53:02.600-08:00Rivertoo big to fail, too<br />
old to trust, the<br />
water sullied by<br />
glowing particulates, threading<br />
thick through the life-blood<br />
of this landscape<br />
<br />
and who shall hear her<br />
call, soft through the<br />
night, winding through<br />
the trees, now bare in winter,<br />
waiting for the green garb of<br />
spring?<br />
<br />
will it come again?<br />
<br />
or shall the rivulets shine,<br />
doubling and redoubling mutations,<br />
reworking our DNA until we are<br />
what?<br />
<br />
fault lines and faulty<br />
thinking: a poor pairing<br />
indeed, piercing the ground<br />
with poisoned daggers, killing<br />
the one who bore us<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-78777475602010866362016-02-16T10:48:00.000-08:002016-02-16T10:48:49.258-08:00Charnelscraping the plates, the<br />
heaped bones into the<br />
charnel of a bin, kitchen<br />
meat-fragrant, redolent of<br />
blood burnt over a steady<br />
flame and she thinks of<br />
him and his dear bones,<br />
that finest of frameworks<br />
and how she (once)<br />
pressed her lips to his<br />
<br />
still, there are greens to<br />
be chopped with a blade,<br />
silver steady, pressed<br />
against the board, the<br />
ribbons adorning a blue<br />
bowl, crowning the cool<br />
china like a triumphal<br />
wreath, waiting for a<br />
fine seasoning<br />
<br />
as she would season your<br />
brow with kisses, peppering<br />
his cheeks until she was<br />
hungry no more.....<br />
<br />
and still, the pitchers to<br />
be filled and the linen<br />
cloths, these winding sheets,<br />
to be pressed and put<br />
away<br />
<br />
oh my dear, my darling one,<br />
do not abandon me!<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-73286708805280850362016-02-16T10:41:00.001-08:002016-02-16T10:41:35.695-08:00Fairy Talesdrops--that will not pierce<br />
the skin--pelt the flesh<br />
like pennies against the<br />
wall--a coin toss, the<br />
rolling of bones, all in<br />
life a chance, the<br />
chancers standing on the<br />
corner with their matchbook<br />
manifestos, eyes snapping<br />
like a leather belt around<br />
the ears.<br />
<br />
this too<br />
shall pass<br />
shall pass<br />
<br />
and all will be light<br />
again, the unnerving glory<br />
of a spring day encapsulated<br />
in a single pill, to be<br />
taken with a glass of<br />
milk<br />
<br />
we are good children (or<br />
were, once-upon-a-time)<br />
when we still believed<br />
in happily-ever-after<br />
<br />
keeping company with the<br />
kith and kin of the forest,<br />
those familiar gnomish elves<br />
who practice good magic<br />
and reward the<br />
simple and deserving, answering<br />
thick riddles with<br />
common courtesy<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-84298403504162331792016-02-16T10:34:00.002-08:002016-02-16T10:34:56.873-08:00Carpet, Electrifiedthe boards shake under a<br />
multitude of hooves, a<br />
tremendous trembling of all<br />
about her, the very fibers of<br />
her clothes quiver, the<br />
carpet is electrified, shining<br />
beneath her feet, the<br />
hot coals to walk across,<br />
a straight line makes for<br />
the shortest distance--<br />
moving the clobber of clothes there, here,<br />
there<br />
<br />
bend and stoop and move,<br />
move, move. up down, up down,<br />
from black to black and the<br />
mouth, always, looking to be<br />
filled<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-13992996294831401392016-02-16T10:31:00.000-08:002016-02-16T10:31:30.797-08:00Sundaysit, stand, sit, stand,<br />
kneel.<br />
<br />
kneel and count the<br />
colors in the glass bordered<br />
by metal, thick scent and<br />
always the bells, crisp linen,<br />
fluttering bills, the words-words-<br />
words--the smoothness of<br />
wood and glass, the<br />
quiet-cool of marble, the<br />
water daubed crossways, and<br />
then the returning, blinking, molelike,<br />
to the glare of the sun outside,<br />
blinded, but only for a moment<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-39636187300398680932016-02-16T10:27:00.000-08:002016-02-16T10:27:24.166-08:00Farmyardah, the bleating and the<br />
bellowing of this season would<br />
fill a zeppelin with hot air to bear<br />
us away from these ill-<br />
tempered contentions, the<br />
rancorous neighing and<br />
pawing of the ground in the<br />
barnyard fit only for<br />
animal tempers, ungoverned,<br />
ungovernable, beribboned and<br />
bewigged, grandly suited in<br />
their suits for our affections,<br />
lapels pin-pricked, noose-tied<br />
red or blue, all this<br />
sound and furyMcCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-17916394450507282662015-06-18T09:41:00.001-07:002015-06-18T09:41:26.593-07:00Poetry Reading - poems written and read at the Kickoff Celebration for Peekskill Open Studios 2015<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vJEbyUB3JVo/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vJEbyUB3JVo?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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<br />
<br />
<br />
Poems originally written for and read at the Kickoff Celebration for Peekskill Open Studios 2015 at the Paramount Hudson Valley Theater in Peekskill, NY. 5th June 2015.<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-62847260666220747232015-06-05T20:46:00.001-07:002015-06-05T20:46:47.344-07:00So Poetry and Art Walk Hand in Handso--poetry and art walk hand<br />
in hand, each keeping close track<br />
of the time, internal<br />
rhythms ticking away, turning somersaults,<br />
this capering pair<br />
<br />
trundling past once shuttered<br />
storefronts now blazing with<br />
music, adorned with tinseled<br />
crosses at the crossroads<br />
<br />
they do not rush through the<br />
thrum hum of the traffic--they<br />
take note of the ever changing<br />
composition of the sunset over the river, the<br />
evensong of the birds, metrical and sweet,<br />
dripping honey as the sky darkens to dusk,<br />
then night<br />
<br />
using every crayon in the box<br />
to write their manifestos, while the<br />
blades of grass pierce the sky, the<br />
lamb lying down with the lion,<br />
and she asks "what is not<br />
art, when I am with you?"<br />
<br />
the china, twice fired, their<br />
roses not yet off the bloom,<br />
shudder, slightly, as poetry<br />
and art, now arm in arm,<br />
tramp past the shop window,<br />
mixing desire with memory thickly<br />
upon their palette, the pages<br />
of their book no longer reproachful in<br />
their blankness<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26981574.post-85453456528121198292015-06-05T20:40:00.000-07:002015-06-05T20:40:21.998-07:00Framed by Lightframed by light, the lines<br />
graved in his face a studied relief, a<br />
map of all that has been, a hint<br />
of what may be yet<br />
<br />
as he (so noisily) hammers out<br />
a new piece of art and<br />
the crickets sing in counterpoint,<br />
our summer chorus<br />
<br />
his ranging limbs forming the metal<br />
into the shape he wills, forcing the<br />
detritus of last night's battle into<br />
<br />
the shining baby, knife sharpened,<br />
sprung from the slick grey coils ever<br />
tightening and relaxing, directing those<br />
<br />
messy digits to sift through the<br />
dross for gleaming gold,<br />
the path lit by fireflies blinking out<br />
their morse code<br />
<br />
<br />McCarra—Poetryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16656677222424763261noreply@blogger.com0