20 August 2005

Matthea Harvey

[from Sad Little Breathing Machine by Matthea Harvey]

Address to an Absent Flea

Reading the sonnet the old way
was impossible once the period

started leaping about. Through
the magnifying glass you seemed

a gadget God, with a suitably
parasitical air. I am trying not

to let making too much of things
become a habit—I read too slowly

already. Little Itch-Ticket whose
menu has only one item on it,

I think it’s important to be specific.
I’ve never felt desire before.

I won’t believe that was accidental
syntax. If a pen were a turret to me

I too might wait, nest in a tapestry
& save my stories for some bloodless day,

but please come back from wherever
you’ve gone. There is so little left.



1 comment:

  1. Interesting combination of writers quoted on this blog. Cormac McCarthy (spelling?) and Margaret Atwood were the only ones I've read of the recent posts. It was one of Atwood's novels--can't remember which--that made me see the possibility of doing laundry as a sensuous experience. She described the main character's laundry day--a vivid passage. Ironic, given that this same woman wrote the HANDMAIDEN'S TALE.

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