is lining the interior with unbleached muslin. is tacking a line of pockets inside. is freshening feather pillows : without wringing, they are exactly right. is treating chapped hands with a thick salve of lard & flour applied at night. is confusing brining with burning. was afraid the dog had been killed but toward morning he was heard scratching at the door : a halo of silt in the sink : watered-silk in the attic : the need to wax : the cylinder itself. is mottled, is beetles killed with dish soap, diluted. is skirting the melting snow that clings to the house-sides, as if cold lived there alone. is wall studs : either mold or a spirit collecting : is what is the meaning of : ownership, full, or nothing at all : is staying because sometimes a body doesn’t know when to stop :
is making a morning of wrong moves. is heather hung out to dry. is sleeping in the same room as the stove. is putting a wet finger to the wind. is wiping sirup from small but growing hands. is growing eyes in the back of her head. is the outer eye opening inner. up with the sun : hedge fence about the black cherries. is patterned planting. is herself the orchard quincunx. is stopping after the second form : coming home to be married : troweling a circle of sprouts from a heart-rotted oak. is accused of killing her own :
you were standing there : holding my hand to the wax : i was holding in my other : multiple hands a range of remedies and chemicals : the liquids eating away their containers : artifice dropping into the natural : blending there : something forming and i was still standing : toe cramping : doling out advice (you transcribing it with a hunk of lead) : bucket-handles rutting my forearms : red lines : divots : standing in sleep like a horse : milk pouring down from the eaves : and i said (or was it she) :
beware this warm grip
for i live in the brown space
between generations
where all is resolved
