“Make It New”
By Alice Fulton
I find it helpful to imagine writing in a blizzard
with every inscription
designed to prevent snow
crystals from drifting in.
Avoid the hive mind. Go fly a kite,
raise a stained glass window in the sky.
It’s the opposite of making love to drudgery,
what I do for a dying.
Remove the bitter sediment
trapped in the brewer. It will be new
whether you make it new
or not. It will be full of neo-
shadows. Full of then — both past and next,
iridescent with suspense. Remember
time is not the treasure revealer.
More a midge larva creeping
through a waterfall releasing
suction feet. The curiosity rover
lands on Mars! New is a hooligan.
It breaks the reckoning frame and rests
in pieces. Let me collect its dna
from the tears on your desk.
Source: Poetry (October 2013)