Lunchtime with Woodwinds
I wish I could write a song
to make the world
yield to this rushing
lapping what starts
tonguing what parts
any possible other world than this
inertia for pink medallion
inertia for those skeptics
in the building
who think of the unknown
as hemorrhage—quick stop
that thing from surfacing
I want to rub along
the webbing I want nothing but
the cove’s yawning jaw
for how else could possibility emerge
you see that honey
seeping through cracks?
let’s consider unbearable facts
beat this meat against the rocks
you call that virtue? knock knock
is this the proper place for the symposium?
small of my back requests unfolding
requests enveloping entry
call the operators
to open pathways
to vessels which gleam
rightly and rush
to make this here inlet
a humid blue bowl
to resist enclosure
and the loaded laying down
of structure on soft earth
as desire can never perish
blind in the rush of weeds
trying to get a glimpse
of the law
falling away
and in passing breathing lift
Copyright © 2016 by Alli Warren. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on November 16, 2016, by the Academy of American Poets.