Two Poems

These poems are two different poems.

Diet

One day I’ll give myself to you

muscle and mouth but

not yet.

                                    (you’re already half holding on anyway)

Every time I should tell you I

get this urge to lean into the

rushing and shake your hands and clasped fingers

                                    but I’d be pulled

                                    off balance; my fault.

My name’s not yet been dipped

in your fat not dipped not coaled and

as a result it’s uninsulated

though I think

                                    by some adopted.      

Will probably never really get the

rolling and the green right in my

joints

                                    but you keep

                                    november out okay.

I can see where I’d’ve looked for

treasure in your pebbled beds

and monsters in your darks

                                    and I could have

                                    raised (snapped) armies

No but it’s okay because I

first screamed I think in clean walls

but I know where

                                    I was made, wasted

                                    drenched, tripping, tumbling

                                    down slope (to damp) to road to

                                    get helped up

Messenger


then when you broke the window

when you smashed the window

when you shattered into sand the high window

                                                                                    we flinched

then when you dropped the plate

            when you threw the plate down

            when you hammered the china plate straight down onto the marble

                                                                                    we blinked

                                    We made ships from the

splinters you seeded.

                                    We glued mug rags into

statuettes of Buddha Ganesha and Set.

                                    We tickled into stacks the

dripped off corn sheets.

                                    We rubbed the scum of

work hours off your knuckles and lips.

                                    We wouldn’t

bother you because it wouldn’t have been

fair instead we

learned to sew

every day again we learned to sew

quiet fast so you couldn’t see the stitching we learned to sew

then when you broke the lock

            when you couldn’t find your keys and broke the lock

            when you half tore down the door the time you had to break the lock

                                                                                    we jumped

then when you woke up

            when you got woken up late on night

            when she woke you up hungry late and pitch black on night

                                                                                    we looked down and

it was in nights like those that we

learned to sew those dry split sweating nights that we

really and truly learned to sew hands clasped to every toga then

quiet fast so you never knew there’d been a stitch we

learned to sew

then when you couldn’t eat

            when you couldn’t force it down

            when you gagged

                                                                                    we ducked

then when you just needed to think

            when you just needed room to think

            when you just needed some quiet room to think

                                                                                    we shut up

                                    We coloured the lines in with

chalk from the bricks.

                                    We carved your meals with

scissors you dropped.

                                    We blackened the mirrors with

blowtorches in circles and squares.

                                    We scrubbed the hulls the

doors with water and wax.

                                    We were

always grateful we knew we

owed you all we had we didn’t

ever want you to think we

didn’t know so to

show we were so grateful we

learned to sew