In a couple of hours darkness will throw its blanket
over the scene she will pretend to read a mystery
the mower and hammering will cease
The bees leave the andromeda and then
So much has been spent constructing a plausible life
she did not hear the engines of dissent run down
Some still attempt to cover the skull with the wire of their hair
others shave everything instead
A solitary relives the pleasure of releasing his bird
There is no sacrosanct version there is only time
Even now if someone yells Avalanche she has one
Thoughts shudder against the ribs and go still
Soon the son would be out running around in her car
with a sore throat soon the decibels commence killing off hair cells
She checks to see if the phone is charged and then
The ones responsible for slaying the dreamer are mostly in the ground
but the ones responsible for slaying the dream
suffer only metabolic syndrome
Even now now that her supply of contact lenses has dwindled
she was refusing to sing the Wal-Mart song
The bees would be back and then
All efforts at reconciliation aside even if everyone exchanged germs
happiness is only for amateurs
A dress worn only once before has been hung on the door
the mirror under the cloth receives its image
by C.D. Wright
© C.D. Wright, 2009.
Deeply personal and politically ferocious, Wright’s thirteenth collection Rising, Falling, Hovering (Copper Canyon Press, 2009) addresses, as Wright has said elsewhere, “the commonly felt crises of [our] times” — from illegal immigration and the specific consequences of empire to the challenges of parenting and the honesty required of human relationships.
C.D. Wright has published over a dozen works of poetry and prose. Among her honours are the Robert Creeley Award and a MacArthur Fellowship. She lives near Providence, Rhode Island. To learn more about her work, click here.
Copper Canyon Press is a non-profit publisher that believes poetry is vital to language and living. For thirty-five years, the Press has fostered the work of emerging, established, and world-renowned poets for an expanding audience. To find out more about Copper Canyon and its publications, click here.
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