Reversed Alphabet of Rain

This entry is part 33 of 47 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Summer 2012

 

Zero buyers till now, for our old home in the middle of the city—
You wrote, too, how in the last monsoon, there was hardly a dry spot:
xerox copies of leaks in every room, even inside the closets.
When we first moved there in ’63, you said there was a frame of
varnished mahogany hanging in the foyer; a portrait,
unexpected— the former president of the Commonwealth,
tints brightening on dull canvas after dusting and
scrubbing lightly with a cloth. Where is it now? In those days,
rain also fell for months on end. The neighborhood below Rock
Quarry always flooded every year. Lining up for relief goods,
people shivered in queue at the barangay health center:
oil, rice, sardines, powdered or evaporated milk for babies.
No one knows when the area first came to be known as The Lagoon.
Mostly “squatters” there— meaning, people setting up homes on
land they did not own; they reasoned, who else would build there,
knowing how flood-prone and inhospitable it was each season?
Just think of that kind of transience, living in a danger zone.
I remember how we used to pull our mattresses into the living room,
huddle in the dark of power outages. Sans batteries, candles threw
garish shapes on walls as our hands put on puppet plays—
fanned-out butterfly wings, a bird, a dog’s barking head.
Evening stretched into the long uncertainty of night.
Do you remember how every sound was magnified?
Candle wax pooled on the floor and hardened.
Bright sweeps of sudden light from trucks on the road;
arcs of memory on a more interior windshield.

 

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.

Etymology::

to take heart, invigorate, freshen, turn (a sail) by means of a brace:: to make stronger, reinforce, fasten tightly, bind against the wind; to fathom— against the nervous trees and their supply of questions— the lifting fog, the grace of a few thistles by the road. What is the length of a day? Two arms can measure only so much. But obey:: lift your head against the haze of cool blue clouds. Here’s the scope of what might be achieved:: perhaps not so much to bend ends back to their beginnings, as to stroke repeatedly until the needle points back to steady.

 

In response to Morning Porch and small stone (134).

The Trials

May all beings be free from suffering and the causes of suffering.
~ from The Four Immeasurables

 

And in that tale, like bits of broken teeth,
like gems or brittle tears, a thousand grains

are spilled upon dark ground. Because the soul
looked full upon love’s face, it now must count

and gather, harvest shredded wool among the bramble,
stitch its craft of mortal longings to the impossible.

The stars, as always, withhold commentary.
Only the blossoms along the fence offer

sweet worth, stubborn hope; the thorns,
their pointed epistle: I wound to heal.

 

In response to thus: Night prayer.

Remnant heat in flickering pools

below the horizon— Driving back
once more in the haze of evening,

it seems so simple— The engine
of intention presses forward
into the dark, the road unfurls

like breath. A line of white
reflects the right-hand border.
Steady at the wheel, all curves

taken in increments. At higher
speeds, the windshield stipples
with dusty ochre and green.

 

In response to small stone (132).

A hawk circles over the ridge

This entry is part 31 of 47 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Summer 2012

 

higher and higher, until the line it draws
is thinner, fainter— Plumed, taloned, sprung,
targeting; on the way to becoming gone, out
of sight, and finally out of feeling’s range.

Something of that wild heartbeat once burned
its bronze tattoo from the inside of my chest.
See the gouge-marks on leathered flesh?
Evidence it wasn’t all fetters and stays.

But oh that velvet hood is soft and hides so well
the liquid glint in the corner of each eye.

 

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.

The hummingbird isn’t the only bird

This entry is part 30 of 47 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Summer 2012

 

with jewel colors. And the dead
cherry still plays host to insect life.
The sign that points the wrong way
isn’t necessarily wrong. You know
what it’s like to pick at the same scab:
play the music in the same way. Don’t get
ahead of yourself— for a change,
let the day worry about its outcomes.

 

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.

Despite

“… who needs a needle
to thread the seamless labyrinth
of the rose?” ~ D. Bonta

Because they bent
too far across the walk

and scratched your cheek
or arms whenever you passed,

I tied the roses back
with twine; and yet

their flushed and creamy
scent is warmer still,

more than the radial glow
of motion sensor lights.

 

In response to Via Negativa: Thorn.

Tokens

This entry is part 29 of 47 in the series Morning Porch Poems: Summer 2012

 

Scree of some wild creature overhead, wing like a stroke of graphite that flickers just out of sight. On the way back, we drive through soybean fields yellowing from the heat; and whole stands of trees bent like saplings from the last passing storm. A sky the color of beaten copper. Everywhere, some reminder of the fragile. But also what persists; surprises. For miles and miles, not a house or rest stop. And then— Where did those droves of tiny moths come from, riding tiny bits of prayer flags into the wind? Bodies of soft brown. Velvet fuzz of cattails and rushes. Perhaps, this time, the boatman will let us through. We cross the Chowan River just as crickets drill tin can holes into the evening.

 

In response to an entry from the Morning Porch.

Sieves

The hinge between them is slight: a moderate pull with the wrists,
and the chopsticks come apart. Pale, unlacquered: permeable.

She is lonely in that house: cabinets stuffed with old lace and chiffon,
flagstones of cracked shale. Eyelets, keyholes: equally permeable.

Mornings, I’d wake there to things that to me resembled light: clinked spoons,
smell of browned onions in the pan; bread rolls dipped in coffee, permeable.

I remember the sound of her old Singer sewing machine, the cushion,
the orange chalk, the pins. The needle makes surfaces more permeable.

Some things grow even more tenuous with time. The tin roof, never patched,
now leaks rain water into plastic pails. How does one seal what’s permeable?

How to fulfill duty in the midst of difficulty? In the end it seems I always
fall short; regretful I’ve failed, my best intentions pockmarked, permeable.

 

In response to small stone (129).