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)