Deeds of Utmost Kindness

The Blue Rock Collection

The Blue Rock Collection This page intentionally left blank I G N E O U S granite (slab) They will slaughter you pray for you and wish you peace but there is something wrong with this. gabbro Scarecrow in the field with a bow and arrow. THE BLUE ROCK COLLECTION !9 lava I wake on the futon, a stream of ants shining to the baseboard from the cut in my palm. moon moon 2O DEEDS OF UTMOST K I N D N E S S M E T A M O R P H I C horneblende schist A deer in the sun covered with flies. ophicalcite marble Two tendons sieze the throat, pulleying her breasts taut. serpentine Green came to the forest like Helen Traubel's voice. THE BLUE ROCK COLLECTION 21 C R Y S T A L S geode You are entitled to be uncertain: swallow the cambrian tongue, now crack the head crammed with teeth. tourmaline The man who will not pay dues. The moonshine in which a cottonmouth steeps. 22 DEEDS OF UTMOST KINDNESS yellow quartz Men cruising the park. Dogs barking. In the highrise, lights. garnet Politicians squeeze hands. Pigeon eyes. THE BLUE ROCK COLLECTION 23 S E D I M E N T A R Y sandstone Across the quiet river, fog spins out blanking the doorsteps of houses from which fathers shout for children and crumble, and have only their tiredness to go on. diatomacious limestone In the roofless auditorium soldiers are sleeping under helmets and long snows. 24 DEEDS OF UTMOST KINDNESS T E R M S pitcheblende Light's skill is its failing. pyrite I bet you are judging this poem already. erosion We wake, drunk. The planetarium locks into place under our hair; wetake the bus, neurons flicking out in pairs. plate techtonics Tug of slow war. THE BLUE ROCK COLLECTION 25 the earth as an evolved body You enter the trap door, unlatch the windows, open them. Birds are humming like women with thread. No one is fond of burials here. At the root of each flower, odor of baked bread. 26 DEEDS OF UTMOST KINDNESS ...