Whence
Are we in a flood, next door?
If there’s water, water everywhere
then I want to know about it.
I don’t know where the property ends
due to it missing a fence,
even a wire fence. I think that the groceries
need to be gathered. The water in the pipes
of my house makes me suspicious of turning door knobs.
Am I a fish on the other side?
With Mother
Playing with doilies means
stitching and cutting and stitching and cutting.
The routine of the day is nothing in comparison.
Vertical, horizontal shapes emerge...
after the scissors. Everything is a long time
in being established. Some of these shapes look suspicious.
But we learn to love them all, that’s what
a daughter does for her mother when
she makes her stitching right.
All Alert
Swans upon the water:
there is no difference.
Airy reeds with air in between
are a proof of the indistinctness
of nature. What is one is one.
Swans within the water,
better said, as they merge and form
a new body, are placated with the transformation.