lacy schutz
what's a sweetheart
       


One Step Down From Here

   
    The day rises a rosy-
      fingered virgin falls
  an old man gold-hued
    hems sweeping
    the horizon
      What the natives
  < back to poetry titles recite in these
  < back to image   coastal towns their
  < back to giornata.net   sexual rituals their
        secret recipes I take
      notes in the margins
        of a book by an
      alcoholic writer
        They wear their
      horns all soft
        and raw taut to the
      foot of a strangled
        bed Forsooth to soothe
      The soot settles
        on the tomatoes obscene
      and the obscene figs
        We spent fifty
      one months of
        crying dust and
      sleeplessness I’d
        like to take all
      those days the ones
        spun into fine
      threads of gold
        reel them back
      wind them into
        a ball beat the ball
      into a coin and
        spend it all
      before nightfall
        Pulling out that
      twin rooted root—my
        God you never knew
      it had a human
        voice This
      is the first time you
        heard your mother
      crying
       
       
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      © Lacy Schutz, 2004