Knew (poem)

Knew

Evils come again, his complaint, their demands

Once unsullied things, images risen to a tar pool’s

cunning gloss, waiting

family faces, images of that, strangers

as remembered, kitchen flooring, lino laying

a sheet unattached, anxious about that

a great-nephew ferried across cornfields

feet smudging patterns packed with hours

chewing buttons, lost to boredom, chided for that

boards opening to the dirt under

fearful of sleeping where instructed

red-hot coils of her heater buzzing

while the visit lasted, ambulance men

on a night the kitchen door stood cracked

A woman is tortured, so a man can sell a gadget

At gatherings, he pitches dopamine cicadas

stultifying hums that dim the mind

he pitches theories of memories

salted and spiced

his complaint, her complaint

a breathy mumbling of the victim’s name carried

conscience to conscience, distilled from the million

deaths of war, doubting that

only as a tag-you’re-it

Knew

Uncollected Poems

(2022, Stephanie Foster)