Thursday, April 17, 2008
Trespassing in Ohio
The surface of the loading dock
had been milled by a century
of pallet-laden forks. The ballast
emerged in a loose,
slippery flour. I could feel its
granular drift beneath my shoes.
Nails and washers compacted in
the sediment. An iron
cross-beam poised its hesitant
threat, rushing us
molecule by molecule.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Summer
The mother did not so much walk
slowly, stopping to admire
a flower
or nothing at all, but rather
made each step
an event. Visits had become
this simple. Enjoying the sun.
Drinking tea. The daughter. The children. Together
quietly. Words returned to their objects.
The breeze in the leaves.
The afternoons getting longer. The lawn.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Trespassing in Ohio
The surface of the loading dock
had been milled by a century
of pallets and forks. The ballast
emerged in a loose
and slippery flour. I could feel it
grainy and drifting beneath my shoes.
Nails and washers compacted in
the sediment. A metal
cross-beam poised its hesitant
threat, rushing us
molecule by molecule.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
The kaolin bowl
Jonquils pose along
a clay notch
where the craquelure
winds
through an overgrown
creek blocked
with driftwood.
Monday, April 07, 2008
The kaolin pit
Jonquils pose on
the ceramic chine where the
craquelure winds
through an overgrown creek,
dammed with driftwood:
‘ums’ and ‘you knows’
snagged like doubts.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
The Porcelain Doll
Jonquils pose on
a ceramic sky
where the craquelure winds
through a hedge
catching driftwood:
‘ums’ and ‘you knows’
snagged like doubts in the final look.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The A1 motorway, exit 110
A crumbling hard shoulder
fringed with hairy grama, bell-shaped spikelets
lining the fringes
of the visible world. Spirals
and scribbles from green to toe-deep
rhizome. Sprays of rabbit’s foot and clumps of maiden grass,
Carex blood
corkscrews, God’s toothbrush, a bull elephant’s
dental floss, dreadlocks
of the Great Dane,
Variegata of wands and brushes, matted tea-parties,
Beatle-browed mops, butter yellow
from Summer, burnt copper
tangles curling a dense groundcover,
drooping hints
of wild oats, inflorescences
accented towards grey, battered
by a tidy warmth of ghosts, pink
at the shins.
