Genealogy

In an earlier age immaculate wives iron sheets
and the hollowing process of laughter sets in to take on meaning
the way gravity is devoted to erosion, monitoring
and waiting for a common penetration, not of the heart
yet sniggering at some level beyond the residual
and found most fruitful or dependable remixed,
appended to us as natural as the edge of night.

Surrounding services are always on call,
whole blocks south of 38th street flagged for service,
flags decorating their homes and cars
foregoing the intricacies of generations for now
and the distance of things from each other.
Now at the cusp of our own foretold passing
the rising, warmer waters hold the earth
together like the hands of a god awash
with anger, the thick atmosphere focusing
the red sun colder and farther away
destroying its hydrogen, while we are always waiting
for the effortless increments of the out there
to wake us with more news to disperse us, going in fear.


(Tacoma, U.S., 2004)