from Reunions

Rings possess fingers.

Fingers remember

what the eyes have

blocked. The blindness

in this

case is figurative.

The figure in this

case is

curvaceous.

)

Milled, folded,

soldered.

Inlaid omen.

Mokume gane.

Ifs as hinges.

Ands as pins.

Rings as

reunions.

)

In some remote

pre-dawn eye slit

                           the horizon largely

             the same

the cinquefoils still

chirpy and obliging the ox-eyed

             daisies and the daisies

                           fleabane and the worts and weeds

             the thistles and yarrows

still healing and exotic

                           in their ways—

Weeds bind.

             Tongues beard.

                           Thimbles berry.

             Balms bee.

Flags blue.

)

Rain clarifies colors—

                           colors reveal the brief

ambition of these

                           provincial weeds.

                           In gullies,

             mosses soft, mosses bright

as dyed suede

feel rich beneath scrubbed feet.

             Rain—nature’s iteration—

                           light paradiddles

                                       on the surface

                                                      of the creek.

How free-making this word

                                                      (penniless)

before

a judge!