I.

Procure his bone-dry clay & burnish,
synchronous glide and precision.

Red Eared Slider stares beyond aquarium rim,
four feet shy of two from shell to carpet.

Aspen drum, synesthesia’s sunflower.
What are …

The children have left the red ball
disintegrating in the backyard.
Half-gone, it’s a dimpled dome

for dead grass, brittle and yellow—
Even the cows would pass if it were …

& the trees gleam wetly under the luminous clouds

& through a water-ribboned window a child draws pictures

& the child draws the man as a winter tree with the moon above

& …

I recalled for the therapist a rabbit skin I bought
At summer camp, at the camp trading post,
When I was nine or ten using cash my parents
Sent with …

On the one side
there are hummingbirds
plucking secret fruits
from the tongues of foxgloves
& a shimmering woman
who yawns like a cat
in the day bed of a