BONES OR BRANCHES
1
winter
scours my eyes with steel wool and they shine like coal
and they
fill with wild apple blossoms jet-black feathers
and they
grainy edge where dusk bleeds through wasted leaves a
rusted-out
coffee can
2
Or last
night,
crying
again
You really
wanted
to be pregnant
Even though
we can’t
afford
to
buy groceries
3
Intent
on dry weeds—
Blurred
double-exposure of the face in the photo
Stale
ice flows scraping bright orange buoys
Trash
wrappers torn up through trees across the field
After
Mom calls to tell Noah they’ve taken Grandma to the hospital
Because
they couldn’t get her out of the chair
4
IRIS
Names
loved ones radio static smoke
Ventilator
sunlight twists
The oak’s
broken shadow
Voice
ripped free to drift
Or the
crow’s flight to his branch
5
For K
It’s a
fine morning
……………..
He was
crying on the stairs when I turned to look back in the window
Stepping
out onto the deck to fish beers out of a snowy 12 pack
Thankful
to be alone with you when wind rattles our story
Clusters
of trees streaked by intervals of distance—a panicked clutter of wings
Where
seed eats through to grass at the base of the feeder
6
Draft
of wind just over the flue—
Ashes
As far
as
What
Grieves
you
Ashes
It’s gone
Forever
Grieves
you the most
7
Sassy
Carolina
wren
Laughing
its head
off
Melt on
the deck
near old
leaves
And a
bunched up rug
8
Sweet
rot oranges
Musty
week-old Valentine’s Day flowers
Snow covers
the river like a throw
The morning
you died
Woke us up and we were shocked
we
were
Dogs barking
(same as always)
9
F smacks
his lips to lick out an empty yogurt container
Holes
or wounds savage shaking in the air
What to
do or say when dead brothers wave at the window
Your hands
were soft your arms the texture of bark
Looking
up from somewhere frightened
Glow of
coals in the woodstove
Leave
Noah sleeping across two chairs by the bed
Your hair
like cornhusk
10
Bent rusty
fence got some give to it
As deer crowd through worn tombstones
for winter grass
Simple
and they return
More gracefully
as a family
Not cut
off from each other caustic or edgy
Haunted
by dissonances
11
House
at THE LITTLE ANGELS OF HEAVEN in shadows vacant all day
No one’s
there since the man went to jail for assault
12
Make
a home where you are
wrap K
in our quilt and pull on my jacket in the doorway
brush
snow off the woodpile, dirt and ash
from my
hands at the sink
mourning
is slow music
bubbles
under the ice
buds gathering
behind isolations
residual
numbness of grief—hoarfrost
on faded
cloth flowers
13
Feedback—
Knots
of fear
Racked
by anger
Frayed
blue tarp
Caught
in a crosswind
Buckets
of ash
We pour
into the garden
Leaves
crushed to pulp
Under
the chair’s legs
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