OTHER MINDS
For each word
I find fit
companions—
not alternatives.
This is what I mean
by “think.”
*
Is it true that for you
a berry is not
a blister
or a bead?
*
When I say “Mm-hmm”
vacantly,
like a manager
hearing a complaint,
while I crack my spine
with a deft twist,
that’s my private business.
*
It’s nouns that need companionship.
Alone, they get anxious–
though this isn’t true
of ‘clock”
or “truck.”
*
So you don’t slide sideways
between “buzz”
and “rub?”
When you see a daisy
you don’t think “pinwheel?”
WHILE
The accumulated brilliance of fall
The leaves holding that brassy high note as long
The almost tender flickers
from the trees, the wires, the bottle
left out on a ledge
signal that we’re all
in this together–
while “this”
is a passing impulse
traveling through the air.
*
The need to mix
happiness and grief
appears
to be everywhere.
