Swirling Lines

SWIRLING LINES /Ricardo Pau-Llosa A brain, a tree heart, the cellular meltings of a galaxy, a fly's wing, a torpedo's bubbly void, a moire' dress shifting, leaf, ear, onion, fist, blood's canopy, rolled newspaper, a knot of hair, a dozing cat-o'-nine-tails, a ring of cigar ash, grasses on the river, a face diluted on a concave, marble's calcium strings, a snake nest, an astrolabe, smoke writing or clenching, a pineapple's crown, estuary sand settling like pastry shells, run-on opalescences, hamburger, the acrobatics of streaks on glass, geology's veils, a rippling pond, a disemboweled wire, a bowl of pasta, a peacock feather, cloud fronds, the citadel of a car engine, a star-of-Bethlehem, a bouquet of cathodes and filaments, squid embracing, genes, an agate word, a project for a cabbage, combed sand, the lace of oil on water, plywood, a terraced slope, the penmanship of dance, watermarks, a vortex of moss, the ways of meaning, wet fur, fire's filigree, a plowman's world, an artichoke halved, a nautilus echo, a deck of handkerchiefs arching like papyrus heads, the mother-of-pearl undulations of a porch screen, brushstrokes, climate mapped from a satellite, a labyrinth, 24 · The Missouri Review this thumb against the pane— the face of touch— on the first morning of spring. Ricardo Pau-Llosa THE MISSOURI REVIEW · 25 ...