Practical Water

Anthem for Aquifers

A N T H E M F O R A Q U I F E R S The waters flow over the people of California They flow over bodies in distressed desire Pocks & knots & fixed muscles With names hooked to their types Women who left snacks in white boxes With metal handles in fuel-e·cient cars Where the first oak on the right side turns down Tatter peril stressform fear West of where serpentine peeks ragged from the years West of vertical ice paradox parhelia & pines smelling of vanilla Where they lay in their mineral calm We asked the glitter in the vineyard You still there? Tatter peril stressform matter Under the vineyard how shall we live With nouns for seasons & chthonic patter Where everything happens as itself Steam rose from the geyser it rose & fell Into vernal pools from vertical ice Ragged from the years Rose with a mildly worried look on its face With specks of rivers & nouns can’t you tell From being so long in the seasons so well Steam from the geyser it rose & fell With dried-up crying from the sea can’t you tell & the flavor of the dream Was the flavor of death You can probably hear it as the crow’s wing crrr crr Where the pine on the right side dips down 7 2 Ash ash we lower ourselves into you With the help of little Eve We lower our hearts & our chromosomes & ex-wives & Spanish clouds Sisters & brothers of the unkilled dream Where we lay in our mineral calm Stressform fear carbon & tatter Minerals pushed up from the sea floor so well Calcium boron sulfur Fluoride silicates & salts Do you hate your body did you ever oh hell You need to stop that right now said water It flowed over bodies with tattoos Of prime time & bridges Tendrils of grapes & lilies & Spanish clouds Tattoos of lovers’ names & flexible worlds It flowed over each woman disordered in the west Where the fern on the left side drips down You searched for water but you were one of it o well Minor streams said goodbye they rose & fell The y of water like wishbones & still A fluke a creek sound breaks through up north Till the body of a woman is the body of a world Where you live in your mineral calm You have arrived with great e‡ort You lived at the edge of the field like a wasp gall With knots & pocks & fixed muscles by the well With burls & girls & Spanish clouds So if death had visited you what would it have said Where the vine on the hillside winds down Days of dried-up crying by split-apart oaks 7 3 Sea joined by your son for a season & if life had visited you What would it have said Peril stressform carbon joy Where you slept for a time beyond reason 7 4 ...