mutating the signature

Clean Fill Wanted

Don’t bring your tires
stripped of hot rims, or used
condoms, syringes or jumbo sized
needles. Leave the headless
doll in the truck, along with wrappers,
giddy snack vestiges and Keystone
cans. Don’t bother with torn underwear —
some young prize — or that quilted flannel
shirt, its insulation spilling from shiny
interior seams. Keep your mismatched
cutlery, fork tines bent like a $4.95
breakfast special. Send your compact
fluorescents on a trip to never-never
land with last year’s cell as busted companion.
Bury elsewhere two decades worth of smoldered
butts the color of clay. Toss fragments to sea:
green, brown, clear glass, to tumble edges soft.

Bring children to learn to read, tie shoes backwards,
upside the tales. Let them decipher shape by color.
Bring triangle squares and scissors. Bring a narrative
line with a blaring arc that flares under a welder’s solder torch.

Balance the putrid organic matter so time will weigh, remove
oxygen and trace cardio-pulmonary systems back to bacterial beginnings.

* * *
Maybe daylighting stuff that is hidden — for protection, for safe-keeping — isn’t such a good idea. Or maybe I should have expected a mess instead of some utopia.

Chain links drag
over the lip
of the hole, pushing

gravel and dirt
into my hair, dust
in my eye. Throw

me a line.

I hear: clink, pebbles
drop, dink dink
between chain
and rock. Flickers

of light, metal
on wall shimmers
black to brown to
warm to dark. Place

captured hand on
craggy surface, draws
along the edges. Push,

throw a shoulder
into it! Tilts the balance,

thrashing back and forth
exhaust this act
rock back to sleep
forgetting the urge
to be rescued.

————————

I used the chain link idea in “Tripping the Wire,” along with the idea of “Balancing the Burrow.” Looks like I’m still stuck in the bunny hole, and having difficulty getting out…

(Deb, a technical question. Not at all poetic – how do I link this post to your other posts?)

How to Balance Your Burrow

If you’ve aroused your burrow (they are temperamental and don’t like to be moved), the lap stops rocking because the hole leans at an angle. To fix this, rock the lap and balance your burrow. Don’t use a crow bar. Continue testing for balance.

This requires a good ear and a lot of patience.

Balancing your burrow demands action. Place something under your burrow on either the left or right side to get the lap rocking just right. A blanket or pillow will probably do the trick. Tip your burrow towards the sky so that it leans. Be very careful with these tricky maneuvers. Don’t tip your burrow too far in either direction. Your burrow may veer too far off balance.

Trying to catch one of these monsters is not easy.

* * *
Process notes: A found “poem” using repair advice for “how to fix a grandfather clock.” I tied into Jenny’s “time.” I also used “lap” as a key word. I started thinking about lap siding, but wasn’t as amused by the mash-up.