The Fire Landscape: Poems

CONTENTS

C O N T E N T S The Anomaly Museum The Anomaly Museum 5 The Fluoroscope Era How the Good War Ended 9 Black Veils 10 The Sorrows 11 Queen for a Day 13 Drawing the Soul 14 The Fire Landscape 15 House Call 17 The Fluoroscope Era 18 Them!. . . and second big feature . . . Tarantula! 20 Dunce 21 The Coonskin Cap 22 The Horns of Guy Lombardo 24 The Salk Years While Salk Tested 29 Moonbows 30 Bomb Drill 31 Bad Time 33 Snickering like the Pharisees 34 Porch Moths 35 Watching the Tied Girl 36 ix P 1FINCKE_pages.qxd 5/21/08 9:31 AM Page ix The Privacy of the Hands 38 The Music of Ants 39 False Dawn 41 Filling in the Maps Filling in the Maps 45 The Impossible Like Ours 53 Decorative Food 55 Houses with No Television 57 English Class Report: I Married a Monster from Outer Space 58 The Theory of Dog Shit 60 White Gloves 61 Skill 63 Glitter Stars 65 Woom! Ball 68 Girdles 69 Because It Was Always Summer 71 The Impossible 73 The Shooting Kent, Ohio 77 Mother’s Day, 1970 78 All Through May, 1970 79 The Summer After 80 Late August 82 After School Reopened 83 px 1FINCKE_pages.qxd 5/21/08 9:31 AM Page x Winter: The Barter System 84 The Anniversaries 86 The Casual Slurs 87 History Bites 88 The Ghosts in the Shelter Something like the Attic 93 Love Poem for the Dying 95 The Ghosts in the Shelter 97 Such Places 99 The 1918 House 101 This 103 The Empowerment of Trust 104 Heavy Fog, December 106 The Pause in the Plummet for Prayer 108 Elegy: The Properties of Blood Elegy: The Properties of Blood 111 Miracles Miracles 119 xi P 1FINCKE_pages.qxd 5/21/08 9:31 AM Page xi 1FINCKE_pages.qxd 5/21/08 9:31 AM Page xii The Fire Landscape 1FINCKE_pages.qxd 5/21/08 9:31 AM Page 1 1FINCKE_pages.qxd 5/21/08 9:31 AM Page 2 ...