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brooch “It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances” --Oscar Wilde mosaiced object (a trinket objects, a humble aid versailles fragments a distortion and necessary balance medusa’s shield a shallow pool wire coils upon its back theater of artifice von Liebig’s chemistry composes fremantle glass a convex copper refractor the re duction of silver salt objection demurs decorative tool devil’s accessory, black runes formulate wire a shattered codex glass a venetian industry intrudes artifice justifies appearances a separate codex copper forms five- sided iterations there is no suggestion of illusion five trajectories of glass and metallic silver an optical device (mosaic an ornament or objection (shield helixical balance of surface and seeming reflection is no difference untitled sculpture in copper, silver and cotton against a meander
length has
no recourse but patience, bent hard upon itself a river, river form,
sedimentation and erosion, a pattern replicating itself meanders, a
tuft of smoke or a bluff, an unfelt wind presses white tendrils into
the air, breath caught, air also meandering, its erosion another
hypothesis, perfectly elliptical, a direction disguising itself as a
digression, shallows forming create a pressure of resistance that
length has no answer to, copper tolerates delay, a mutual duty and
charity, the current nods in copper’s direction and continues its
digression
A horse (1) A
horse or deer, an iron
horse. Steel bent to suggest a limb, half-lifted. A curve
posits the necessity of eyes, keeping an eye on things. Limber
foreleg lifted into air, horse. An air of grace, a deer
fleeing into dark. Shadows of oaks stand in the wings. Dear
horse and dark night. Her tail suggests otherwise, an impatience
registers even in stillness. Night horse a flight of iron over
earth. Even iron cannot defy gravity. Any situation is lost
without a map. Steel bends necessarily, a bow or arc, an
unwillingness to wait. Forest beckons like black earth and sun-soaked
air. Seen and seeing, grace depends on silence and the
inevitability of motion. A horse gambols over earth, a horse
making light of air.
A horse (2): “Lost Coyote” A
horse and cousin of
coyote, a horse and flower ritual. Dogwood and redbud, wood
refuses an arc. Coyote laughs, his mouth full of red ochre and
pollen. Nevermind. Wood has other permissions, his penis a
flower omen. Flower promise. His penis long as
his. Body. Coyote shakes his ochre-dusted legs and runs
off, giggling. His laughter another ritual. Her
brother-cousin, Coyote. Sun to her moon.
Of brass encompassing and glass: murano choker disk of earth or water a compass of sky lozenge of frozen air caught between midnight and noon a litany or chain circumference of light spheroid forms translate themselves take color forsake color embrace doubt hunger soft edges of longing reiterate one another cartouche of dark amber banded planetary disk nomen in umber bright orb pressed to ellipse allure of cinnamon or henna arabesques, a spiral unwinds forms its most unadorned shape a meridian or line bends a bronze ecliptic upon itself suspends triple weight of murano :: oro and calcedonio beads orb disk ellipse cartouche of earth and air Copper bracer An
arrangement of vertices
inform the cylinder, copper matrix defying horizon. Her arm
lazily awaits his gaze (can mere attribution define an absence of
intention?). A curl licks her ear, “Certainly,” she whispers
sotto voce. The rods of copper keep their distance. Her arm
is an attribution, willfully giving way to inattention. Short
white crescents tip the nail of each finger, intimations of the moon
rising. Should a gaze condescend to observe it, or any other,
gestures at the margin beg her reflection. But silver is better,
bands and channels of silver. Turquoise describes it, even the
white crescents (another set of vertices in parallel). Copper
companions silver, awaits its gesture. Her fingers push back one
her (coppering) strand. A moon smiles companionably.
Observing the necessary horizon, copper lights it, a surface scattering
energy. Bangles telegraph distance over a surface of wire and
tubing. Framed in whispers and rods, a gestural codex of desire.
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| marthe reed lives in Lafayette, Louisiana. Her poetry has recently appeared in Exquisite Corpse, Sugar Mule, New Orleans Review, and Golden Handcuffs Review. New work is forthcoming in aught and moria. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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