A Dream is Also
A dream is also an island,
surrounded by the swirling waters
of myth-memory;
surrounded by the stillness of the night
and mother’s anxiety,
which is only another word
for the currents of the night.
A dream is also an allegory;
only I distrust its hierarchy of veils,
and the masks nailed to the doors
you have to pass through—
form within form.
For by the time
you’ve decoded the allegory,
ream and the memory of it
have both swept past
like a fish-shoal wrapped
in a darkening current.
Still Life
Mud hut— woman at the door
shading her eyes against the morning sun.
Distance flowering yellow with mustard
rice straw drying
the blue jay brilliant on the margosa tree .
Still Life II
Mud hut—woman at the door
face grey as mud, hair scraggy as rice straw.
Heat above and around, wilted yellow below.
Absence of the blue jay heavy on the branch
fatigued old retina eyeing the world.
