a lamp

john martoneocean / samuddo

2015

3redbuds flower outside a chapelsblue windows

4throw those windows open

5where on earth

6you step outsidewhere its quiet

you come insidewhere its still

7a stone flower basket empty under bare oaks

8if you dare leave that orchid outside overnight

9fig tree taken in from the cold leans at a window

10

pines trilliums ferns they condemn his house

11

his housea woodenfish

12

all these yearsroof hasnt leaked

13

nightfall try to catch up

14

as long as cleaning this toilet takes

15

a birthday & now midnight

16

no helping it youll diein a dirty house

17

picking bagworms his shapeon a step ladder

18

bodys a lamp

19

fool drops clay flower potsone doesnt shatter

20

his gardens white ashes

21

tilling your garden finding the weederlost last summer

22

a shame to plowviolets

23

old clothesspreading mulch

24

after digging his garden drinks from his crackedwater glass

25

chicken wirescratches you bloody

26

when you stand right herein your yarda smell of death

27

gardengloves cant

28

weeds in rags

29

twig rikyus tea scoop

30

clouds sail byabove his shovel

31

a mourning dove after that dream

33

his house gutted lilacs remain

34

for shame theyve cut a new trail

35

tractor ruts right past jack in his pulpit

36

bluebells in full silence

37

uprightthe bluephlox

38

columbine antennas listenfor alien life

39

a lake ripplesredbud

40

waterfall sawdust pours from the termite tree

41

wind off lake a pebble in your shoe

42

walking the length of it nothing washed-up

43

these arelight greenshoots of

44

turns to sun

45

a deersbedding placethe mahayana

47

a dream cant tell which ways north

48

escape artist not this body

49

play yourselfout

50

drown in this wind

51

planets edgea prairie road

52

clouds sail across a prairie road nothing is endless

53

his whistle & his life jacket

54

a torn sheet of paper a line of breaking waves