Thursday, November 6, 2014

Gwen North Reiss




Out of the Crystal Wool of the Sky


The dead build their houses.
No stone doors or grass-tossed wreaths.

They like interiors and space
not too much furniture

just enough room to greet you,
to invite themselves in.

They have nothing against photographs.
While you puzzle over graphic patterns

in the old class pictures, they stand
in rows in front of the school’s

gothic entrance, pointed arch, every face
distinct, clear, young, squinting

against the sun.  And they love an index—
alphabetical, last name first.  Letters?

They take a running jump into
that crinkled bed of words that once

looped out of hand and pen.  A poem
is a station they hurry toward,

express stop. They love the space
after the line.  Place to be.  And in

the old films, what they’re doing is wandering
around.  You won’t necessarily see them.

They might be several blocks away
from the action, admiring

the elms, the way they looked
before the blight.




© Gwen North Reiss





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