A Calculus of Readiness

字號:


     I, too, come from the city of dolls.
     A small palm is my umbrella.
     This takes care of above
     but below, the blind river of sadness rolls
     on and in it, a hand is always reaching up
     to pick fish from the night-time sky.
     The lines on the palm of the hand lure a trout
     with a strand of hair from the head of a doll.
     The bait is the hope for a hand on your brow.
     Shadows play on the wall. Or the face of a doll.
     The plants eyeing each other is all.
     I would not call the stars generous.
     They don't cry enough for dolls to play Drink Me.
     They don't cast a covenant's fishy rainbow
     yet leaf faces watch the open window
     where they hang far and hard.
     The rein of starlight a second hand
     with which to play Go Fish.
     Now Give me a hand, plants. Now give me
     good-night, stars.