No Room for Error

 
the advantage of the umbrella,

the syllables in a short paragraph,

the dog’s ears and the nesting bowls,

the olives, the empty cans, the flour dust

on the floor in a swathe of moonlight,

the checkers out of their box,

the psalms, the ruse, the invitation,

the anatomy of the mole who made this mound,

the blind, the lame, the heartsick,

the rumor of a cure,

the doorjamb, the Wednesday before,

the soldier left for dead who’s not dead,

the windows in the farmhouse,

the weeping




Likeness

 
Bellicose wind,

I take it personally, crawl

into my own arms, shudder.

 

I am not a weather thought,

a storm swallow, but wistful,

a bird at angle, seeming.

 

Ruckus of trees, look

askance at dangerous breath,

the widow hollow, my twin.

two poems by Mercedes Lawry

Rae Perkins
 

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