Things That Fall Out of My Pocket
A
Field Guide to the Birds of North America
I
intentionally drop that to flaunt
my
false scientific credentials
blackberries
from the Appalachian Trail
dried
in the sun, set aside for a necklace
for
my sweetheart, I wonder will she wear it
ice
water from a North Carolina waterfall
distinct
from your garden variety kitchen
freefall
faucet floundering
keys
swiped from a desk drawer
meant
for Yale locks and gates
but
you know all about gates
[RK,
11/30/2020]
Things I Carry in My Pocket
Numberless, half-remembered resolutions.
Flint and pyrite: fool’s gold.
Charcloth, charcoal, and touchwood.
A tinderbox set with a burning glass,
lighters, and lucifers.
[LSS, 11/30/20]
Creative Outlet
Unplug the lamps, the clocks,
and all of the appliances.
The walls should listen too
to that lovely music you
haven’t played in years.
[LSS, 11/30/20]
Persephone (Your Octopus Heart)
This
pomegranate I cut into has seven chambers
and
I question how many months you
must
remain in the underworld, each year
four,
six, seven, and then I google octopus
remembering
something about how they have
three
hearts, and how the systemic heart
tires
easily, as you must tire when you
drag
yourself up from down under
year
after year after year
[RK, 11/29/2020]
Collateral
your
cell phone aimed at my stained palm
tart
unripe blackberries mixed with
the
sugared fruit you stuff in a pie
overcast
bears misread our footprints
run
critical eyes over recently cleaned
pink
Depression glass plates, collected
collectible,
used as collateral against
pennywhistles,
tin drums, soprano
saxophones
bleating an arpeggio into
the
cedar three ring wax wing, hovering
above
the Ganges, Nile, Mississippi
Amazon,
Indus, Danube, and Yangtze
rivers,
muddy shores lined with almost
human-like
footprints, the picnic hamper
dishware
is a dead giveaway
[RK, 11/29/2020]
Rhetorical Device
I am not prepared
to tell you where
I have hidden the parts
of your machine,
which I dismantled today
while you were away
at the philosophers’
convention.
[LSS, 11/29/20]
A Jury of Trees
Peaceful and still, waiting
for nothing,
silent,
their only job to listen
to the evidence,
meditating,
preying on the words
I lay before them.
[LSS, 11/29/20]
Espris de Corps
The troupe have only just now
finished licking clean their plates
for the spinning act the dancing bears
have been working on to welcome
the road-weary cedars to the big-top sky.
[LSS, 11/28/20]
The Snake in the Dark
The existential
will to communicate
eating its own
glass tail.
[LSS, 11/28/20]
Bears
four and twenty blackberries
caked onto the waiting sky
sliced wide open, dripping
juice stains on linen
a one man band follows you
sops up wet pie crumbs
trailed through kitchen, yard
forest, past your forever gate
thicket, brambles where you
ramble unhindered among
trampling bears who render
and validate your language
[RK, 11/27/2020]
Tornado Watch
we waited and watched
the sky darkened
nothing happened in the sky
in the sky nothing
could happen, the lake frozen
unable to reflect the nothingness
of the outside, or the somethingness
of the inside
[RK, 11/27/2020]
Your Blackberry Roman Á Clef (after Romance Novel)
chapter one lays out the groundwork
by turns, friable, loamy, overlain
with mouse footprints
chapter seven delves into character development
the antagonist is made human
through a single selfless action
chapter eleven our heroine, protagonist
flutters about the thorny patch partly
trampled down by thoughtless bears
chapter twenty-two a throwaway moment
from chapter three shudders into sharp relief
the narrative suffers repeated setbacks
chapter thirty-eight’s plot lines tangle
fast and precarious, leaving the reader
uncertain of who to cheer for
the penultimate chapter describes a resolution
of sorts, in emotionless detail, the woods
around her house offer solace and safety
chapter one thousand and one she crushes
blackberries in her hands, gobbles them down
when no one is looking
[RK, 11/26/20]
Fear
a stingray, a silver dollar sized
silver fish, kingfishers rattle above
playful cormorants dart beneath hulls
overarching mangrove trunks, tangled
roots, shallow intercoastal communiques
mangled by a cell phone photo map
unfeathered paddles whack branches
every plus and minus balanced
even though balance is improbable
[RK, 11/26/20]
What You Heard Me Say When I Said Yes
I’m not sure
do I have to?
it doesn’t need to be like that
is that what you want?
I disagree
what are the options?
I don’t want to
is there an alternative?
I don’t like it
[RK, 11/26/20]
Slipping Away (after Combing the Beach)
eddies left by paddles
a bare choppy sea lit
inescapable light, lingering
long after the passage of boats
what remains unsaid, measured
with cracked gray oysters
clinging, surrounded by gnats
here on the rising tide, rising,
floating, and falling,
rising, floating, and falling,
rising, floating, and falling,
falling, falling.
[RK, 11/26/20]
Root, Trunk, Limb, Twig, Flower, Fruit
one of those winding conversations
without beginning or end, for example
our mutual distain for a consumer life
lmade easy by a dependence on oil
viewpoints which join us at the hip
while the unspoken stories remain
tangled, sixty year old roots hidden
in split rocks and sludgy clay
[RK, 11/26/20]
Things That Happened Today When I Was Not Paying Attention
On the way to pick up my order from the farm, I missed my turn because I was listening to an interesting story on the radio.
The view from Maxwelton Beach where I turned around was nice: white caps and beach walkers and a tomorrow-is-a-holiday mood.
When I arrived at the farm, the interesting story was reaching the end, but I forgot to sit still for a moment longer to listen to the final words.
My produce order was not ready yet. I had forgotten to note the time before leaving home.
But now here is your poem with the truncated list at the center of my attention.
[LSS, 11/25/20]
Late One Late November Afternoon
She’s using stencils
to ink some letters
on the unprimed canvas
of her summer dress.
She’s using all the numbers
and all the symbols too.
The number eight
and the cents sign
lie exhausted on their sides,
asking when it got to be
this dark and why can’t she
just go away and leave them
to their private language.
[LSS, 11/25/20]
One
planning to be without
the group I once joined
then turned away from
one map, one bicycle, one
[RK, 11/25/20]
I’m Forwarding This with My Original Comments
messaging and emails make it easier
to make more mistakes, imagine more
misunderstandings
[RK, 11/25/20]
Worrying About Things that Could Happen When I’m Not Paying
Attention
house painters trampling the garden
flat tire at night on a rural state highway
bears following for no apparent reason
lightning charges burning out a router
changing affections
loss of friendship
prostate cancer
death
the list naturally truncates itself
[RK, 11/25/20]
Did You Do That? (after I Never Do That)
I stitch together paper and canvas, paint and pencil
(did you do that?)
yes a long time ago
(it doesn’t really count anymore, does it?)
there is a glow in the ashes
(you can’t eat ashes)
one does not eat memories, one handles them gently, like ghosts,
or roughly, like rugby.
(where are your philosophical and mathematical proofs?)
at the side of the road, with my ideals
(that must depress you excessively)
let me be more exact: at the side of the road, two thousand ninety-one
miles and eight thousand and thirty days behind me
(did you do that?)
yes a long time ago
[RK, 11/25/20]
Awareness (after Taking Down the Screens)
the implied line of defense
provided by window screens
when damaged and removed
the importance of yard lines, septic tanks
roof tar, weather stripping, locks,
bolts, clean gutters, a secure mailbox
snail mail, social media messages
telephones, correct email addresses
the commitment between just two
[RK, 11/25/20]
Bread (after Common Ground)
will we break the bread?
only if it is made from rice flour
language will connect us? yes or no?
confrontation is part of communication
agree to disagree?
the easy way out!
is there a gluten intolerance?
very well then, I contradict myself
[RK, 11/25/20]
How To Draw Exactly What You See
the horse has four legs
or does it?
there are three vanishing points
or are there?
the saw-whet owl’s eyes face forward
or do they?
autumn leaves are
or are they?
photographs never
or do they?
this is what you
or was it?
[RK,
11/25/20]
Distribution (after Diagnosing the Problem)
how many bags are needed
to solve the luggage problem of distribution
how many jars of peanut butter
did we bring
why do you question my desire
to photograph a stack of drying dishes
the dishes are part of the distribution
of elegantly packed memories
I throw your need for appropriate behavior
upward, it revolves around the earth
moments are spent awaiting
the solution of orbital decay
[RK, 11/25/20]
Number Nine (first version)
the flooded trails and single vulture
shorn of clouds and raccoon paws
squelch the mud, rise the pine
charred by lightning, testament
the fool, the star, the three of swords
unseen fox in daylight passes
bench number nine, discussing how
commitment follows up conviction
[RK, 11/23/20]
Number Nine (second version)
sandy hummocks, charred slash pine
flooded roads and insect lull
elusive scent of cow and mud
vulture tease and hunger glow
lazy ease of wind sea tree
dove and jay a thousand wings
sun that leaks of ice and please
climb back up onto the road
[RK, 11/23/20]
Room 235
drinking adequate coffee
perched at the edge of a dry tub
in a motel writing this
temporarily it makes sense
inexplicably the water
quivers in a gallon jug
from an unknow tremor going
through the building
plastic curtains, a window the never opens
climate controlled generic furniture
the all-important fire evacuation route
clearly posted on the door
two towels smell of
a remembrance of times past
something colorful melted in a drawer
the missing Gideon Bible
[RK, 11/23/20]
Romance Novel
She never could just be
walking to the library
to pick up a book on hold
when she could be
ripping through the brambles,
shredding her sleeves and skin,
leaving a story behind her
for the other pedestrians
to read along the way.
[LSS, 11/24/20]
I Never Do That
I never make doors out of paper with dental floss hinges.
They never stay closed.
And just this morning, one blew open and fell away completely.
I had to make another paper door.
[LSS, 11/24/20]
Out, Out, Out (after Signal)
“I burnt my finger on the oven element. I never do that.”
“Run cold water over that.”
“I think it’s a first degree burn.”
“Cold water.”
next day the slight discoloration has vanished
I didn’t care even though you cared
it was
turned around, turnabout, turned over
and out, over and out, over
and out
[RK, 11/22/20]
Does What You Want Make It Important?
we spent the day working out our writing
for a friendly impromptu reading
our engineer reveals the soul
of a poet, knocks us down with simple words
our nurse winds through the
echoes of academia and medicine
our teacher reaches for the
ineluctable universal wonder and
shows a predilection for internal rhyme
I unravel a list of what, when, who, and why
leaving off the impossible ‘how’
what species of tree is that?
when was this road graded into the mountain?
who moves between past and present effortlessly?
why did we and we and we and we connect?
how [imitate a raven with crossed, flapping hands]?
how [changing facial expressions]?
how [sailboat sail filled up with wind]?
[RK, 11/22/20]
Palimpsest
People Passengers wait choose
to live out a strange lives house
for the missing are always with us chauffeur
to arrive. arriving and never leaving
Out on the street,
people choose to a different passenger
boards a bus
they step over and finds the driver
asleep on the floor.
They end up going nowhere.
Meanwhile, you fail forget
to get time off for exemplary behavior the train
when you reach
your destination
and end up they force you to back up
back to where you began.
arriving and never leaving
[RK, 11/22/20]
Running Out of Things to Count
Squalid squab and dirty pigeons
roosting in abandoned places.
Burned-out houses, rusty bridges,
silos filled with rotting grains.
The counting outs
we teach ourselves
so we can fall asleep.
[LSS, 11/20/20]
The Shapes of Seeds and Nuts
One must not confuse
the tender pepitas
snuggling one
into the another
inside a fleshy
squash with these
lonely walnuts
forever insisting
on maintaining their
brainy distance.
[LSS, 11/20/20]
