knell
the chit-a’click-chit of a squirrel
giving one of the neighborhood’s
cats the business crackles
the afternoon to a fine static
i can’t quite get the beat
the aspen branches are tapping
against the picture window
ditto the wind in the hedge-
rows ditto the sparrows
by it are my own thoughts muffled
how else explain in a poem
of cat & squirrel
a line like the moon of ash
is made & loves you like a muzzle
flash a twitch of tail a flash
of yellow teeth the cat outmatched
slinks back beneath
the birdbath
where it sleeps the squirrel
dashes down the back
fence to the safety of the maple
tree & me i’m back in the old
cacophonies dumb-
founded tongue-in-a-loll
the last un-tolled bell
in the whole rung universe
i object i object i object
those aren’t stars those are shards
of my grandmother’s bone
china i recognize the family pattern: shrapnel
the night sky to a jagged sparkle blown
the powerlines their wind-strummed chords
a’jangle i was born in the middle
of a 2-lane road empty for 1,000 years
in both directions: down & down
& yet have not upon me shown stars
legit have not whole constellations been configured
to my benefit Your Honor i admit
my life has been as easy as it gets & i have the scars
to prove it of all the things i could have done
why didn’t i just sit
