ROBERT
KELLY

HEART THREAD Parts Thirty-Five and Thirty-Six

Nov 6, 2014 | Uncategorized

35.
Am I clear yet of the old diseases
it’s always too late to begin
to be a bird
a story out of a different miracle
pay me for what I don’t do
all poetry is blackmail she was sure
always a veiled threat
dangerous scent of wild roses
do something to something it always
says
I am what the author left out
more of an answer than a question
like most philosophy
what we don’t need is more
answers. 
 
36.
Least eider paddling along the shore
find the secret roads in running
water
it goes by but they stay on
in the dark every house Altamira
walk with me the midnight hallways
down the cliffs and over sunken
meadows
and never reach the bathroom door
moonrise in the kitchen sink
Uncle Charlie keeps his specimens
awake
I rinsed the city and flew out to sea
Bristol of my fisherfolk Sandford of his
song
be my ancestor honey be my Palestine.

HEART THREAD Parts Thirty-Three and Thirty-Four

Nov 5, 2014 | Uncategorized

33.
The French called them enfances
stories about the childhood of great
men
heroes before they could lift up the
sword
we are infants too and we have swords
we call them memories to use against
the world
is what just seems to happen
remedium amoris remember the last time
the taste in your mouth the nasty
telephone
things never change the way you do
cause without effect tugboat awash in
storm
I love the taste of what won’t let me
be
thighs of a scarecrow feathers of a
clock.
 
34.
Take a long time to work it out
merciless mankind at the mill with
slaves
of course I remember my masters
John O’Clock and William Psalm                                 W.S.
brown Thomas and the Jewess of
Baltimore         T.B.        G.S.
I am the Middle Ages born again
reviver of dragons mountebank of
miracles
three drops of my own blood in the
snow
and I was the woman I was the lost
Christ
I was the ship to Marseille and the
cave in the Vaucluse
I was the stone he stepped on
I was the crown on the soft hair of
his head.

HEART THREAD Parts Thirty-One and Thirty-Two

Nov 4, 2014 | Uncategorized

31.
But to throw all that away like the
sun setting
who knows what will come up again from
the sea
the only monstrosity is me
a two-headed boy with hands on fire
then the mist calmed in along the
sound
you can remember an oriole above the
deck and not much more
spilling aftermaths the custard we
think with
in Vienna the central Peace Yard in
snow
no peace only a relaxing
drumroll and the horses you never
knew who died
until they came to life again
Sunday morning in the park and no one
there.
 
32.
These things at work again and who
can say
blame the otter for the beaver’s dam
we are so bad at causes and effects
time to go to there is no school
and sit there all day dreaming
naked teachers stroll around the room
daring you to see them as they are
the words slip off the meanings
the sun keeps rising all day long
you’d rather be home a book in her
lap
why don’t you read me like you used
to
how did your father’s car get so far
up the tree.