SAWDUST
joke’s on them, we don’t
change shape, our trick is collect enough
moss to illude growth to let a brook
babble at the cheek, just near enough
the mouth to sign our names
at the bottom
no questions asked
another complete and
beautiful thing chewed to
lett ters s
~
I MEAN, YOU DECIDE
when thunder on a wet
drum drops
everything drops lift
crickets pump the chest
so dead ends, revived, may
defy me softly
underfoot till fully lifting
sneakers in
bloom, laces rosed red through
the recesses, little do
they know I cave easy if
not underfoot all
over
so cozily I’d kinda
rather
~
INVASIVE
whether it’s
canebrakes on the Apponaug
or strangler figs
if you want to we’ll cut the page
into lit tle whit e
ie c s
bolster by splintering
the one into so many dizzying pa
ar ts you’ll covet the
spaces betw
een where backgrounds
forefront through the tall dark
unremitting rows of
g r a s s
~
TWININGS
across the pond jangling on
a keel cracked by winters in the new
world my dad steeps his tea each
morning each morning a dark circle
in the mahogany dry-rises slow and to a
misty tune more down at the heel each each
“another drugstore I bet”
and he was right
~
DEW EYE
naivety’s particular appeal
is a shine in the grip
so barely there it soothes so
prone it butters the
blinds, looses a note
from the refrigerator door
dancing lessons
everything you need
to know you
know you know
the oven the timer the
time
~
SEAN TIERNEY 