Bluegrass
I.
sound knots
pinned to a fabric-less body form of oak bone
a barreled chest
the presence of acoustic music over the instrument
resting on your lap
a limited vehicle but you knew that
having learned tablature
the guitar posed in sculpture
clear its throat by reaching the oval gap flushed
against stomach into its curious sound
gather fingers around an inexhaustible voice and play the strings
II.
bread shaped to song as we ate and fidgeted
the pitch of river
frozen to stillness a film
reeled and taut
swelling water
oily in its cold
steps before it hardens
an utterance before song is shaped
a compression of freezing water
eating away at its own babbling face
III.
where are the boxes of clothes
the newspaper to scoop inside of cups
feel free to comment
miss nothing as of chewing a new food
these are features of comfort
a lower altitude,
moved further but no egg crate to snug the ends of the hutch
a chimera of tempered sand
speak of her house absolved by the wiping ocean
speak of her name by way of mountains
the mirrors silver flaking for the edges of the mirrors
leaving only glass unreflective patches
the promised half
the unanswerable ruin of aperture begging
from where you haven’t seen yourself in years
Copyright Credit: Gabriel Gomez, "Bluegrass" from The Outer Bands. Copyright © 2007 by Gabriel Gomez. Reprinted by permission of Gabriel Gomez.
Source: The Outer Bands (University of Notre Dame Press, 2007)