The House-Bound Ventures Out
she prepares for days
hoarding energy (fireflies
in a glass jar) examines
clothing for marks
of wear, a hole in the knee
buttons cracked or missing
(missing) still more
stains on the breast
embroidered blouse
(Mexico) amulets
in the pocket, safe,
protective
her eyes widen
(she can feel the lids stretch)
at the distant horizon, so far
from art-filled walls
mountains, clouds, the river
high, dark, fast, pulling
at its banks, trees bending down
in the water
unfamiliar cafes
shops, boarded storefronts
the bowling alley gone
in its place modern cantilevered
apartments across
from the slumped motel
where she once lived
in one room
(sex & love) daytime
soap operas and the trials
of housewifery punctuated
by books about physics
a drive through the neighbor-
hood of biography, victorian
(dark) towered flats
the hall of a bed
(the first) bath in three
separate rooms, tub, sink,
toilet, time cracked like
old porcelain
she purchases new fish
for the slaughtered pond
food for the fish in the pond
tiny shells and silk cord
threads through narrow
street after wide avenue
maples and asphalt
(the old woman)
|