The Brooklyn Rail

this is a seagull
moving the grey cloud
velvet and obscene
obedient in its governance

             ask for help
             raise a peace flag

 

 

this is a resurgence
moving the grey cloud
velvet and too much
obedient in its governance

              ask for help
raise a peace flag

this is new, just now
moving the cloud
velvet and rolling
obedient in its governance

             ask for help
raise a peace flag

             so I asked for help
             I raised a peace flag
             the reply was yes
the distance was long
and possible

                           move the day
raise a flag

 

 

first plainchant
             for Anna, for Anna

an open capsule
acts as lone supplicant:

             seams at the bridge
a filament for everyone who says yes
keep it smaller

 

rebuilt the footbridge as
                              leeway
rallied at the seams
to carry the load
keep it smaller

keep it smaller
breathe yes
halve the limes
             stream through
             the right ear
             draw a cord and
             stream through
             the left

now oracle. now pray.
keep it smaller.

 

 

             to hear the fowl in the garden

 

 

all the noiseless objects
time delayed
               the waiting years of accretion
the clock fills the house
its governance becomes total

all spill in a blue dream
               took your hand like a promise
nurtured the garden and covenant

all the noiseless objects needled me
lived with the vacuum of it
crept along the perimeter— silent in
its lingering

 

               the ocean and its whole kingdom
through it, every forgotten hour passed
the wave spills on either side
cleaner water over me
a supplicant, little wonder
               saline and tumbleweed
               drift and do this again

the heat stills in its cavity
a shrill warning but who
could hear it      cavalcade and macrame

the clock is nature in the garden
the ivy crept and called its position
               the long shift

what became us

 

 

the I is still longing
shifts to hear the fowl in the garden
the creatures acquiesce and rest now

 

 

             I cursed the perimeter
                           the long way back
             what I thought I saw
             your trembling new world
             incoherence in the garden

 

cursed the little nail bed
the bedlam       the aching want
and want to live
porcelain arrangement
             cursed the I for permission
to covet     the knell
and shrill warning but who
could hear it ?

 

 

I could count the wonder
that remains
the brutal knowledge of succumb
the want that made us whole

             a warning

 

 

through every other night
the edge lets us
the clock in the garden
               is evergreen and solvent
total in its adherence

 

waiting again to be haunted
all half oaths laid bare

in seeing you, each era you have had
passes through
as a thimble and an unbroken
light stream

you have known me