OPEN
and motley surprises
rush in
as though the door
gives way
to a flood tide:
a dying rat
a pair of shoes
a person missing
8 ½ years
the shabby building where
the rat once lived
in a dream-

Have you ever smelled
the day change from fog
to sunlight?
Dark chocolate
where none remains?
Theodore Roethke’s inside a candy wrapper-
hidden prize in December’s raspberry chocolate bar:
(“I knew a woman, lovely in her bones,
When small birds sighed, she would sigh back at them;
Ah, when she moved, she moved more ways than one;
The shapes a bright container can contain!”)

Have you ever plucked a mosquito from your arm-
a translucent ruby siphoning blood-
then let her go?
No fiery welt left behind-
Yet here’s the first fiery camellia on the bough-
a young harrier intent on the hunt
glows red from a distant tree-
The wind stirs
and all is calm-
prayer rides the wave.

My mother’s roommate calls out to me:
"You should live here;
You’re as handy as a shirt pocket-"
Half a smile
dawns on Mom’s still face;
Her eyes are closed.
Debris pushes through the open door;
solace and sorrow
ride the same strange wave.