Megan KAMINSKI









mountains and landscapes wrap the west green
long after water portends future growth
swamp grass vernal pools valley immigration
manmade lakes flood brown matted sod
your discipline is lovely but is not ours
we thank you for it
search for
the door to the sky far below the lake’s surface
where stillness speaks of what will be
gulls and egrets skim shuffle surfaces
wind sweeps across the soft ruins
how many different permutations of this rule
problematized hues and tree failure
snags pepper the estuarine marsh
the signifying process joins






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Shadowy figures loom on the horizon
Trees collapse into streams
Branches become bivouacs
Take a break from the sunshine
Turn soft and dark and eat persimmons
Let the coast crawl across your couch
And leave scarce traces of ash and alchemy
Sounds of trains wide off in the distance
Pepper the day like boot prints
Sit tight and buy us a few more hours








Twilight correctives


A flowering of unexpected seasons emerges from dream
broadband distribution costumes frivolity
my hands open spilling out spring and autumn
broken into countless tiny deportations
remembrance of purple flowers, the tree outside a second-story
I see proliferation or green spaces
the tree uprooted in wind storms a week before winter’s official
tarnished gestures meringue endpaper bottle miseries
without shorter days ahead striated lives diverge
your shoulders only open for a moment
the speed of chance increases in time
tank the cellophane and let the stars sing
unravel

unvarnished waxwings tree fragments
five rings spill out into pockets









Pantoum



The city groggy as if
It would fall asleep on them
Crossing the last of serial
Bridges to old city walls

It would fall asleep on them
She laughed and babbled
Bridges to old city walls
And other things collapsed

She laughed and babbled on
Past the vernacular of gothic arcs
And other things collapsed
Your hand presses my inner arm

Past the vernacular of gothic arcs
Emerald wonders pushed us
Your hand pressed my inner arm
And we made past unneutral

Emerald wonders pushed us
Those ancient neural pathways
And we moved past unneutral
Remnants of empire

Those ancient neural pathways
Festooned with frivolity
Remnants of empire
If not already a poem

Festooned with frivolity
The picture would be complete
If not already a poet
He would be a superb geographer

A picture now complete
The only way to govern democratically
He would be a superb geographer
In the black shadow of the sun

The only way to govern democratically
Will he compromise
The black shadow of the sun
For stations within days

Will he compromise
Crossing the last of serial
Stations without days
The city groggy as if







Pantoum



The man viewed things from
Citadels like chiseled cliffs
Shadows of something else
Streaked with strange passion

Citadels rose like chiseled cliffs
Throwing foreground figures into shadow
Streaked with strange pensions--
The proportions of the mind

Throwing foreground figures into shadow
Their distance an illusion
The proportions of the mind
Differ places on the abyss

Their distance an illusion
Four figures on a tapestry
Form different places on the abyss
Small gouges in the screen

Far figures on a tapestry
Sliver light of ice
Gouge into the screen
Windows glittering like canvas

Slivers of light off ice
Confront the people
Windows glittered like caves
And the law is revealed

Comforting the people
Through its monopoly of violence
The law is revealed
Attesting its non-identity

Through the monopoly of violence
Shadows of something else
Attesting his non-identity
The young man viewed things





 





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