Three Room Dwelling (baby’s crib)
response to Corinne May Botz’s photograph of the same title


a rocking chair
a rocking horse
curve out of sight

brown door’s edge
parallels the stripes
on the wallpaper

blood flicks
pointillist specks
above the crib

there is a towel
a blanket
a gathered curtain

the lino floor
keeps to its strict pattern
are there enough clues

Three Room Dwelling (Buck Shot)
response to Corinne May Botz’s photograph of the same title


did you give chase
have time to reload
collect the buck
from your pocket
slot them in
down long-holed barrels—
these brown flowers, white berries
almost secrete
the shot biting deep
into plaster
past paper
missed her head maybe
there is no blood
nothing but a dark smudge
the shape of two lungs
the burnt treacle wood
of stairs, newel post, door
flowers decoupaged on a chair
two jars with silver lids
mute witnesses to your footsteps’
bright passage
   

Atomic #81


here’s a knife
to cut me with
soft and malleable

what is lustre
and shine
so unlike

inhale me
through your skin
I am an accident

let us
melt
eutectic

let me
confuse your body
with my body

don’t feel the numbness
in your fingers
and toes

let us dissolve
like ghosts
evaporate into air