plum blossoms fully open
     fully fall
steaming back fence of my tea

I asterisk minutes, elliptical hours --
      the moment transcribed
              is a moment
         manufactured, imagined, approximated / grackles lift into sky like a hand / the mayor signs / van door closes, the child already chasing papers / iceberg calves in McMurdo sound / bomb bay doors open / finger a collar / fully engaged
                                                         seven layer bar in one bite

slice and study the geologic core:
storied layer cake over which we live
      and move and have our resonance.
Unrestackable

descend the steps, lift and carry each
    one with you as you pass
                                                              (because it's there)
                                            (to lug the largest suitcase)

show me again your double-jointed thumbs
                      outside Missouri, history laughs

in studios we ride our own broncos
             Howdy Howdy Howdy! I'm a cowboy Look at me!

young woman with a walker lifts her foot / galaxies collide / copy machine jams and the bus leaves without him / contrail expands / you've just been collected into a statistic someone's even now analyzing / my skin / keeps dying /

Copyright 2002, Kelly Lenox Allan

(italics: Gary Larson)

nidus is an online publication supported by the Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh's English Department.