Sitting on My Deck
In My Red Deck Chair
I Have The Sheets on The Line
& The World in My Lap
I Can Hear The Surf
& See The Blue Horizon
Hazed Over
Like My Open Globe
“What’s a Woman like You
doing in a Place like This?”
–Camera View: from back of black oven
w/ Woman looking in
leaning on elbows
–View to rivet My eight-year-old frame:
Black w/ White Star Spatter
How am I Here in this Black Space?
Now white with tomato spatter
from Eliza
in The Microwave
Today is Hot for Nova Scotia
–I know It and You know It–
I’m not making more of It
when a humid trip to get the mail
presents The Ethereal Delight:
A Pair of American Gold Finches
splashing, dipping & shaking off
Together in a roadside puddle
Here I sit to watch
The Vertical Drizzle
outside the confines of The Portico
with The Waves
through The Rain
to watch A Cat
return
before My Naturally Bleach-Blond Daughter
emerges to ask
why I’m sitting in the rain
& If Her Perfect Make Up
is
OK
for
Poker
My Graffiti Years
may have begun
when I was a hospital patient
supposedly recovering at home
while My Father visited
& drove Me scheming
to emblazon each of The Town’s public mirrors
with one Gold Emblem
each with the word “God” inscribed
to describe the reflected viewer
Maybe I Should I Have Used Silver Stickers?
I Hear My Waves
Through The Trees
My Fog Has Settled In
In My Chair
I Sit & See
My Years Have Hardly Been
put on Your Tattoo Sweater, Black
fix Yourself an Ice Coffee
–a tall one–
sit on Your Back Deck
with the dishwasher going
& eggplant parmigiana in the oven
Open Your Journal
Aim Your Silver Pen
write
between
his puny
eyes
During My Brother’s Fatality Inquiry
I bought a silk dress suit
—Armani size 8 made in Italy–
–It Was The Colour Of Moonlight–
I thought a Doctor’s Wife
should have Such A Suit:
I paid Today’s Value
of 30 Silver Maple Leafs
& gained 5 pounds
Super Store, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia
From Super Store Bathroom Stall
to a toddler:
“Yes, We bought lots —
for Josie, Mom & Dad —
so We won’t run out”
–
By The Dressing Room
beyond open cartons from China & Cambodia
to a little girl showing off Her Dress:
“Yes, that’s a beautiful dress —
hold onto Your Balloon!”
–
On The Deck of Rudder’s:
3 burly fishermen
w/ 2 skinny Japanese fish buyers
& One Gull
Who landed on a table
behind Eliza —
My Seventeen-year-old Daughter
Who rode to Yarmouth
with the latest Vogue
open on Her Lap
–
I came home with a Solid Gold
floor mat
for My Kitchen
