the woman says
The woman says read me
she puts a finger to the corner of her mouth
no smiles
the woman stands on our stoop
she screams what? language
she wants to shake her father out
of her mother's flesh
this has been one of her worries
I know something else
she drummed her children out
the broken door of her life
they were too old anyway (she said)
Who am I to speak
I live my life in the blind box of sanity
I want to befriend her
in the days of tell all
she told all
that's what I wanted to hear
suppertime
The father asks for salt
three women rise the mother
the grandmother the aunt there
is only one salt shaker what
can be done
The child continues to eat she
is interested in the problem
each day a different woman wins
the child is relieved she will not
have to choose which one to defend
which one to oppose which one to love
tenth grade
On the deep snowy field
behind the school in
six-foot letters he
shoveled the words I
WAS HERE
Who? I
the one who cried despaired
raged smiled staring at
the vast winter meadow the
white snow white
I
walking in the woods
That's when I saw the old maple
a couple of its thick arms cracked
one arm reclining half rotted
into earth black with the delicious
hospitality of rot to the
littlest creatures
the tree not really dying living
less widely green head high
above the other leaf-crowded
trees a terrible stretch to sun
just to say alive but if you've
liked life you do it