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All poems are from Storage Unit for the Spirit House (Omnidawn, 2020)
Imaging Center
the pointer stick she grips
trails my twisting spine
she plots movement
with the exactness of a fingertip
slow as the motion of a snail in love
my naked back on treatment table
coolness hardening into memory
Hippodrome
a bag of lemons
& what she thought was a midnight cry
she longed to sing
think about lemons now
instead think about what
besides the lemons, there were scratching bats
only when she couldn’t hear him he would sing to her
try to remember how he died
nothing to do with skullcap
nor walnuts & golf clubs
she said she was Irish
she said she ate catfish
Reliquary
striped cat’s blazing eye
sleeping nerves
towering puppets
distant theater of Barcelona
rock vines
looping gaze
lavender husk
fruit nut
black madonna in glass case
wardrobe of ghosts
jagged edges
pilgrimage
stirred light
roots in dark
yanked from ground
eyelashes like miniature chains
Tomb
first version:
she lies still
the tomb is being filled
with a clear liquid
the liquid has a texture
not unlike gelatin
a poison or preservative
for the body that has not yet expired
second version:
her body rejects the liquid
they keep pouring it in
she keeps throwing it up
an attempt to live
as the hands move towards her
she is drawn deeper
into the tomb
third version:
a triangle of light
appears on stuccoed wall
she asks: what does this mean?
the figure
informs her that she
is the queen of New York
& her body is to be filled with pith
final version:
she puts on the silver
dress & silver shoes
kohl-rimmed eyes
she is on the dance
floor of a nightclub
the orb throws circles
of light on extended arms
Tower
a flying fish
in smoky air
one woman
in cerulean dress
balances on tower
silk scarf over head
a burden to breathe
below forest
on fire
fallow deer
wild boar
sloth bear
fleeing flame
tower leans
to east
pivots
moving earth
she coughs
drop of blood
burnt sienna
a tower shakes
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