from circumference
By Laura Walker
map no 5
we wear cinders in block patterns
(dust torn thick as shoals
needing two and taking three
each hand run softly thistles
splinters bearing down
he was soft along the edges, hazy
breath white, a gift for salamanders
along the edges of the thistle pool
needing to go down
and the lines toward path: taking up the sparrows
map no 212
what went west was found
(dear ben
tiny willow devices
the lungs filled with smoke, supposing
outward toward the lip
white thrush planted in rows
galloping on ahead: rural, its turned up collar
she lived where the trailer went
spit toothpaste toward the ground
(lost in drain and water
(her face loose
map no 10
in the greening and the sound
girls in bright dresses, a wound that
taking us on the stairway
(shallow break on the northern side
roots and thistles
who left rustling metal in a ditch
cows among ruins
side of a starling
map no 68
pull hair and white wire
(dear girl
shove westward from the shore
returned thirty years
a girl in limed skirt
and creek water
sleeves of honeysuckle vine
crops lush and abandoned
map no 68
aribel.
the flight along the sleeve
the line of a honeybee
thread pouring
water held against the throat
fifty yards to the deep creek bed
waving her arms, and time
map no 68
spelt longing, shell looming against
made the spell and sun look up
culling the vines and wed
thirty years along the wet
skirts pulled partially around
map no 68
hands held fervently against the face
that in knotting. in knowing
red sorrows and awake:
we wrapped ourselves in braids
lined the shelves with paper
pulled tickseed through barbed wire