Sleeping Lucy
too stoned to stay up for Night Beat
or hallucinate a Magritte: Night Heat
deep country sleep shelf self-chosen
all around bird sound blows in
one year comes out non-smother
yeasty two-hill vista breasty earth brother
in the ground huge bent nails
implements of long-gone giants scavenger hunt trails
first thing this AM hand-trained some bean vines
childhood sidewalks scratchy film’s shifting lines
passive-aggressive silence of heat lightning (mystery mesh)
energy deafness frightening probe: one’s own LSD putty flesh
so I sneak off sometimes and inhale convenience food bin air
no nude skin there
this big being (inches away) I refer to as “weather”
we live together
last night a drizzle flicked drops on me in bed
fragments of northern sky in my head
Poems by Kenward Elmslie are used by permission of The Estate of Kenward Elmslie.