Carrie Etter
As if to Say
Downwind the words arrive in fragments
like the ordinary landmarks on a pensive afternoon -
there the birch, leafless branches scratching the near sky,
comes into view, and her chin rises, the wind catches her hair,
and the words arrive in fragments, pieces of conversation,
past and anticipated, amid silences, seconds
without thought, the birch, the tall, dry grasses of the field,
one vulture on a far fence. The cool, humid afternoon
seeps into what skin is bared, wrists, neck, brows;
the cool, humid afternoon, redemptive in its stillness,
touches her nape just as she slides the key into the door,
just as the words swell into sentences and the lock resists,
resists, and gives way.
like the ordinary landmarks on a pensive afternoon -
there the birch, leafless branches scratching the near sky,
comes into view, and her chin rises, the wind catches her hair,
and the words arrive in fragments, pieces of conversation,
past and anticipated, amid silences, seconds
without thought, the birch, the tall, dry grasses of the field,
one vulture on a far fence. The cool, humid afternoon
seeps into what skin is bared, wrists, neck, brows;
the cool, humid afternoon, redemptive in its stillness,
touches her nape just as she slides the key into the door,
just as the words swell into sentences and the lock resists,
resists, and gives way.
Page(s) 118
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