Pages

7 Jun: "The Book of Hand Shadows" by Marianne Boruch

An eagle and a squirrel. A bull and a sage.
All take two hands, even the sheep
whose mouth is a lever for nothing, neither
grass nor complaint. The black swan’s
mostly one long arm, bent
at the elbow but there’s always feathers
to fool with. Front leaf: a boy
with a candle, leaning curious while
an old man makes
a Shakespeare. The small pointed beard
is a giveaway.
                    I always wanted to, especially
because of the candle part. How the eye is finally
a finger bent to make an emptiness. Or that
a thing thrown up there
is worlds bigger than how it starts. So I liked
the ceiling better than the wall, looking up
where stars roamed and moon sometimes
hovered, were the roof lost,
were we lucky
and forgot ourselves.

1 comment:

  1. Ancient T.V. It sounds fun. Maybe I should spend a night doing that instead of watching Netflix or Basketball. Both young and old can participate, interact, and enjoy the same channels.

    Or was the roof and walls the split? Like everyone having their own screen?

    ReplyDelete