Jumping Off: I Could Not (poem)

I Could Not

[the first of the guests uses a phrase] …that morning…

She will have you join her, mourning

A songbird’s nest shot scattered from a spruce

Clumsy handle of her rake

It is all a metaphor for loss

[the second of the guests plays about] a potent word

…enfeoffment… makes medieval vassalage of unrequited love

Which is strong

Most of his invented histories

Are more of him

[the third of the guests is very interested] …can’t lie…

Likes with difficulty Takes the being of “our kind”

For a tonic

Calls preemption and preempts in fear

Spills guts under label of: Charming Interior

[the fourth of the guests speaks raw] shocks when satisfied

…a sign… he lets pass nothing in contradiction

Hard of comprehension

All he needs in, reads, the library of his head

And this, a brief description on a file card

[the fifth of the guests spins a fable of beasts] …microcosmic…

The jealousy of a mottled snail for its toadstool

Made momentous

The piney grove, the fifth-hole hazard, of course

Belonging to an industrialist

[the sixth of the guests finds fault] slight and oversight

…way it is… a game of instinct if instinct were

The sensory uptake of a nose and one ear

She hangs like a posted warning

Glanced at and left alone

I Could Not

Turtle Island (part one)

Sand

(2019, Stephanie Foster)