Sea ponders and then
pillages the land
•
Tonight the supermoon
no bigger than a regular full moon really
but brighter
almost terrifying
not to be looked at directly
a lidless eye
•
I used to think
that all of us followed the furrows
of the same plow
but then the rains
and then no rain
the millipedes scuffle and scuttle in
the fading gutter-pan and tire track
the reaped field is an altar
overturned
•
Two magenta—no, two hot pink child-sized gloves
abandoned in a host of fallen leaves
by a chain-link fence
What is natural
•
Indoors the pet cat rummaging
making the laundry pile his ship’s
galley his miniature ocean
knows something he does not know he knows
the fate of civilizations
fresh sandbox sand in the dewclaw
coastal erosion
or where the time goes
•
There is no machine
nothing works
it’s the scene in Disgrace
where David decides to put the animal down
not because “his time
has come” but because everyone’s
time comes and no one else will feed him now
•
There is no rule of law
except for what you imagine
which other people may then proceed to ignore
So say a tight-lipped prayer
to the goddess of second chances
wherever she renews her tasks
Civilization’s a split wind a confidence game
put your lips next to a dead leaf and blow it away
while saying you hope
it will be there the following day