Скачать книгу

the woven branches of a linden tree

      then climbing into our van and driving

      until the city sank into the dusky horizon.

      There, someone said, pointing, it’s done it again.

      And it was true, the impassive brick and steel

      were gone. We cranked a U-turn and rumbled

      home over the asphalt we’d just traveled

      in hopes of catching our city in the breathless

      unclothed moment before she had once again

      reassembled herself, down to bits of rusted

      hardware on the roadside and the actors

      hired to loiter outside of bars.

      But this time,

      as we coasted slowly into our neighborhood,

      past the impostors and hastily reconstructed

      but nonetheless convincing details, we smiled

      quietly at one another.

      The van creaked to a stop under the tree

      and we leaned the ladder into its thick crown

      when suddenly something lifted

      scraping into flight, croaking

      like a rusted door—

      as if the tree had cracked

      open and coughed its dark

      and broken

      heart into the sky—

       At Night

       after Simic

      at night you might not sense

      the old hatreds of the city

      which could be anywhere

      rain-swept pavement turns

      to shining lakes of light

      or cars hiss coldly through

      brushstroked intersections

      the people are stacked away

      into vertical burrows filled

      with pill bottles and screens

      insomniacs lie awake and share

      the blank stare of their many

      separate ceilings and children

      are taught to shoot the deadbolt

      upon first returning home

      and yet the city wakes each day

      and puts on its face and nods

      as if it is not a family gathered

      around the scrape of cutlery

      at a steaming evening meal

      pretending grandma never

      used scissors on the mailman

      and that father did not slip

      his hands into his niece’s

      blouse just this afternoon

       Nowhere

      Nothing will happen tonight

      on an unknown rain-darkened street

      at the door of the Hotel Nowhere.

      When the cathedral bells fall silent

      you will know it is the moment.

      The password is any form of the verb

      to be. The ritual will be enacted

      by the most reverend Pastor Niemand

      and will be attended by those that matter

      less and less with each passing day.

      You will know you are expected

      once you conclusively determine

      you have received no invitation.

       At Half-Island

      At Half-Island, slate-gray water breaks

      over rock and plasters

      weeds like hair against the granite

      It has been this way for years

      the sea always swelling

      the tides in flux

      the breathing of the world

      And anyone who pauses to sit

      and watch the sea do its work

      will feel a deep-breathing swell

      slowly fill

      the channels of their body

      When the tide left the orca

      slack on the rock

      the men went out in tall oyster-boots

      to take its teeth

      They had a fine-gauge blade

      for the enamel

      Each tooth worn and grooved

      as wood

      a single one would fill your palm

      with its heft

      like an old flint-knife

      found in a cave

      One look at the angled whale

      said something

      was lodged in its belly

      and soon the men

      were cursing and gawping

      as they pulled

      the better part

      of a moose out

      including one

      fine-hoofed foreleg

      folded neat

      as a camp chair

      and half a rack

      of splintered antler

      I could see it then:

      The wild-eyed moose

      jolted in its crossing

      as the water

      swelled fat and black

      around his churning

      then dragged quickly down

      to be bolted

      in torn hunks

      where the broken

      antler did its piercing work

      and the orca’s dark

      life drained slowly

      into its own belly

Скачать книгу