Rings possess fingers.
Fingers remember
what the eyes have
blocked. The blindness
in this
case is figurative.
The figure in this
case is
curvaceous.
)
Milled, folded,
soldered.
Inlaid omen.
Mokume gane.
Ifs as hinges.
Ands as pins.
Rings as
reunions.
)
In some remote
pre-dawn eye slit
the horizon largely
the same
the cinquefoils still
chirpy and obliging the ox-eyed
daisies and the daisies
fleabane and the worts and weeds
the thistles and yarrows
still healing and exotic
in their ways—
Weeds bind.
Tongues beard.
Thimbles berry.
Balms bee.
Flags blue.
)
Rain clarifies colors—
colors reveal the brief
ambition of these
provincial weeds.
In gullies,
mosses soft, mosses bright
as dyed suede
feel rich beneath scrubbed feet.
Rain—nature’s iteration—
light paradiddles
on the surface
of the creek.
How free-making this word
(penniless)
before
a judge!
Source: Poetry (November 2010).
MORE FROM THIS ISSUE
This poem originally appeared in the November 2010 issue of Poetry magazine
Brooklyn Copeland was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is the author of numerous chapbooks, including The Milk for Free (2008), Longing/Belonging (2009), Laked, Fielded, Blanked (2011), and Salt Ballads (2012, and the full-length collection Siphon, Harbor (2012). Copeland’s work, in which she often layers images, sound, and narrative in short, fragmented lines, has drawn comparisons to that of Lorine Niedecker, William Carlos . . .
Continue reading this biography
Poems by Brooklyn Copeland