2009-06-14
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, ear-
rings, finger rings
her eyes widen
(she can feel the lids
stretch) at the distant
horizon, far
mountains, clouds, the river
high dark fast, pulling
at its banks, trees bent down
in the water
exotic restaurants
new shops, boarded storefronts
the bowling alley gone
in its place modern cantilevered
apartments across
from the slumped motel
where once she lived
husbanded (loving) (loved)
daytime soap operas
the drama of housewifery
punctuated by books
physics philosophy poetry
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
cottonwood flurries
at the windshield
out-of-season
(seed) storm
wide-winged white
dark-tipped osprey
young-one gliding
in the still air
she purchases new fish
for the slaughtered pond
food for the fish in the pond
tiny shells and silk cord
threading through narrow
street after wide avenue
maples and ash trees
(this old woman)
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