After Federico García Lorca and Yehuda Amichai
I used to think it could be solved this way:
like birds huddled above the U-Haul
along the branch rusting through
its green roof. Skycreatures. Balloon
on the house. My mother shrieks
in the garden. The snake
nude against the light. Here: I give you
my feathers—and here are all
my clouds, the volcano’s intimacy—
but the birds aren’t ready
to be oxen again, the mountain matted
with Sisyphus’ sweat. Always the disdainful
shelves of fruit, which is history, the engine
shivers. The dead stay dead.
Copyright © 2024 by Carlie Hoffman. Used with the permission of the author.