Moon Grass Rain

1. Here, shooting stars linger They give out A sparkling trail like a cauterized incision Silver, or amber If the moon is low and rising red 2. And the rain melts the roads And the roads Can rupture a spleen Or oust a kidney stone As for the heart It needs a beginning The narrative Burden of events 3. “Mize, zey eat mize” The Frenchman exclaimed with a smile “Rraized and shipped from za States” We raise rats! I thought That’s a lot of protein! “Maize maize!” it was, after our chickens Have had their fill 4. She was the only nurse in town before the war She spoke seven languages and died suddenly He was a merchant He’s a doorman now and buys us cigarettes 5. Here we are with love pouring out of every orifice Here they are dancing Around the funeral pyre, the corpse in absentia 6. One of the drivers ran over the neighbor’s ducks The neighbor demanded compensation For the post-traumatic stress disorder he accurately anticipates Do you know what it’s like To drive on roads occupied By animal farms: you cannot tell Who killed who or how Many ducks were there to begin with 7. In the morning, elephant grass moves the way Mist is visible in the breeze but doesn’t dampen the skin 8. Today, I yelled at three old women Who wouldn’t stop bargaining for pills they didn’t need One wanted extra For her grandson who came along for the ride 9. Like lip sores The asphalt blisters in the rain And the boys Fill the holes with dirt and gravel And broken green branches Then wait: No windex. No flowers or newspapers And gratuity is appreciated 10. “I have ants in my leg” And “My leg went to sleep” Are not the same thing! The French argue There is no sleep in a tingling numbness The symptom of sluggish blood: I agree. Me too my leg has been anted And we are learning to reconcile The dark with the electric 11. Four days the river runs to the border Nine days to learn it wasn’t the shape Of your nose that gave you away And debts are paid off in a-shelter-for-a-day A pile of wood plus change in your pocket Is a sack of potatoes and change in another’s 12. No more running long or short distance The old women Snicker at me when I pass them by 13. She was comatose post-partum And the beekeeper Bathed her in love everyday When she recovered I gave up What he’d promised me for the woman Who took up nursing their newborn Since as coincidence would have it Her name was Om Assel— Mother of Honey 14. The translation of a medical interview Is not a poem to be written Come recite a verse from childhood with me I see you’re unable to weep, does love Have no command over you? The sea’s like the desert Neither quenches the thirst 15. Here, dry grass burns the moon Here, a clearing of grass is a clearing of snakes 16. And the rain has already been cleansed from the sky The clinic is empty, soon The earth will unseal like a jar Harvest is the season that fills the belly 17. Here, I ride my bicycle invisible Except for a crescent shadow and the Milky Way Is already past 18. And a mirror gives the moon back to the moon Home is an epilogue: Which came first Memory or words?