Things That Collect in the Furrow Between Your Brows

Cat dander, mite 

feces, and your own 

sloughed skin.

Dust remembering 

its own first gaze 

into the mirror.

[LSS, 1/18/21]

Marie Antionette

On your birthday an explorer gives you
the first of many narwhal tusks.
He tells you it is a unicorn horn.
You are pleasantly deceived.

With salt crystal needle and seaweed thread
you stitch yourself into a summer frock.
You gather yourself together and
ignore the Pacific chills.

Now it is close enough you can see
how it spirals in a counter-clockwise direction,
taps Morse code on the hull
beneath your splayed toes.

You sit in the bow and imagine
what lies ahead.
Splashing water melts your stitches.
What holds you together?

[RK, 1/18/2021]

Figure Skating

Your skin prickles deliciously in the cold air.
You cut infinity symbols in the ice
until it cracks. You are prepared.

The symbolic lily, botany of the dead.
Allow it to metamorphosize into
a fresh lotus blossom. Indulge.

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Wings Flapping to Hold the Boat Afloat

Another minute of light 

push pinned to the sky 

this morning.

Another bluebird drawn

to the mast of your 

sinking boat.

[LSS, 1/18/21]

Uninvited Guests Appear in Her Pouf

Marie Antionette shows up as a narwhal

with our boat impaled on her tusk.

Here we are now, dripping seaweed and salt

all over the ballroom floor.

[LSS, 1/18/21]

Figure Skating

The river cracked 

beneath me so 

I carved these water lilies 

where I landed 

in the frozen mud. 

[LSS, 1/18/21]

Variations On A Wave

Tsunami #1

soundless wave rushing
abstruse
abstraction in your ears

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Tsunami #2

the river’s ice
shatters
are you listening?

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Tsunami #3

the cup froze
you cannot stand
crackling sounds

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Tsunami #4

you set the cup down
at the garden’s edge
forgotten

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Tsunami #5

weeding belladonna
you find
what was forgotten

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Tsunami #6

nightshade’s beauty
supersedes
decades of caution

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Tsunami #7

this moment, gone
you wait for
calliope music

[RK, 1/17/2021]

First Cut

the gentle narwhal swims upside down
communicates in an atypical cetacean language

everything is fine, natural, and organic
until the day that tusk puts a hole in the hull

[RK, 1/17/2021]

When It Opens

slivers of light tantalize weathered prairie
                                                        outbuildings
parted clouds stream across the peaks
                                                        aspens
lit and yellowwhiteblue all around
                                                        it gets in
and then the naming of the shadows
                                                        begins

[RK, 1/17/2021]

Fit

I am
able to stay put
like daredevil dogs
able to take credit
with weight attached
able to navigate
the intercoastal waterway
able to fit, but only
like a specific puzzle piece

[RK, 1/17/2021]

First Cup

Only this steam rising from this surface,

only these porcelain walls, 

only this brief moment of knowing 

there is no other cup.

[LSS, 1/16/21]

Exorcism

Stopping your ears

by pressing,

stopping your gut

by contracting,

entering the sound

of the tsunami.

[LSS, 1/16/21]

What I Left Behind

Cecilia Bartoli, Thomas Wyatt, Wanda Coleman, N. Scott Momaday, E. Power Biggs, Anselm Keifer, Lucy Maude Montgomery, Mark Twain, Edward P. Jones, Arundhati Roy, J.R.R. Tolkien, Curved Air, Mary Cassatt, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Pink Floyd,

The Fish Market, Doney Park Water Company, The San Francisco Peaks, Downtown Phoenix, Beaver Creek, The Verde Valley, Sandia Crest, UNM, NAU, Albuquerque, Flagstaff, Two Rock Mountain, Coal Avenue, Park Central Mall,

a rocking chair, special education students, the pickup truck, the canyon, archaeology sites, juniper trees, a golden retriever, peregrine falcons, cats, quail, ants, porcupines, woodpeckers, bees, prairie dogs, kestrels, meadowlarks,

a field of wild sunflowers, compost piles, prickly pear cactus, lion footprints, quartz, corn, beans, cracked pavements, constellations, satellites, endless nights, sufferable dawns,

a cold house, a second cold house, a third cold house.

[RK, 1/15/2021]