[from Barbara Guest's Collected Poems, ed. Hadley Haden Guest, Wesleyan, 2008]
Cape Canaveral
Fixed in my new wig
the green grass side
hanging down
I impart to my silences
operas.
Climate cannot impair
neither the gray clouds nor the black waters
the change in my hair.
Covered with straw or alabaster
I'm inured against weather.
The vixen's glare, the tear on the flesh
covered continent where the snake
withers happily and the nude deer
antler glitters, neither shares
my rifled ocean growth
polar and spare.
Eyes open
spinning pockets
for the glass harpoons
lying under my lids
icy as summers
Nose ridges
where the glaciers melt
into my autumnal winter-fed cheek
hiding its shudder in this kelp
glued
cracked as the air.
Gorgeous language. I can see why you love it.
ReplyDeleteI think I have some of her work in Augusta. Her lines are dynamic;each word SO exquisitely rooted.
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