Six Scenes

I

Simply, driftwood shoulder
          gained precedence, lacked
     form.  Of such
when all else
          is overcast, bits
     set apart
from what comes next,
          body of straw and
     meal laced of habit.
The grains of it as
          tide makes three, makes
     passage anew as
the angle dips and swerves
          into such ease of flight
     other borders hold to
along the lip of rock
          only to fall once more
     where once it held forth.
The heart is fire
          and the traces 
     thereof.


II

It takes from sand
          more than from
     granite, a thatched home
where water is what one
          stops for.
     It shifts according to
reasons otherwise engaged, air too
          warm for breath lizards
     sunning along rails of glass
pertain to.


III

Stakes left rusting after
          the wind dies and
     the sky clears posture of
definition.  Clearly bent, the
          attention of photography
     maintains it, scruffy as before
with ends splayed, dropped
          in such alleys and 
     leavened with stark design.
So it follows an earlier sky, sudden
          darkness less than the sudden
     light across it as rain comes,
wind cutting things from the brush
          to which they are tied.


IV

Grateful the end is near,
          tract of rivers and elk
     in passing so
green and flat as figure to ground,
          animal to trees
     to blue distance.


V

For the breezes are still,
          fewer than before.
     Set twigs in motion
for fear of what may come of amplitude
          secure as
     a room can be
dropped into such a country.


VI

Saturation in a corner of time
          drains tar from the edges,
     lifts distinct brushes
to the grey.  Runners along which it
          floats descend
     beyond the rise of land where
we simply sit tempting the length
          and source of
     dust.  So splayed, surface
cracks only control
          transit and charge wires
     carry.  Elsewhere, partitions.  And
gaps marking our return to forms
          we otherwise only
     invent.


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