Kimberly Lyons

Pale White With Pale White Rings

At the old St. Mark's bookstore
first saw the cover of Midwinter's Day
so blue and large it took my breath away

then met Bernadette Mayer at a party at
Lorna's apt
she & Brooker pushing me: talk to her, talk to her

almost 20 years later

visible before dawn
then Venus goes to the other side of the sun
tangerines in a crate
I'm all jittery, world torn up
as an orange fiery net

Saturn, pale white with pale white rings.

an old sled
an antidote
the sun roared on
filtered blue and elastic
a cathedral of fires the dragon spits out

I read pure maple sugar on a box
and feelings pile up in the throat
space contracts
& the horizon shifts

like a seahorse the green man
pulls from his sack
a pregnancy
toys fall to the earth

shiny black tape
x's the calendar made
the new moon evolves
slowed down
words come to an arc, an alphabet of the sun
Bernadette, thanks, it
was a lot of fun.

 

Reef

Writing on pink edged, ruled paper
suddenly Billie Holiday's sepia registers
a pervasive spreading colorization
at a level that holds voice and horn.

Shadows dissimulate
cool on June skin. Unfurl

dive in
clock all broken season's
reign.

Regret at 9:00 in the morning.
I love the northern summer's
hesitation
unfolds its atmosphere
reflective

in a glass
coral on a wall
envelopes

in cool blue & poetry
"in the book on the table"
Coolidge is daily.



What the Gods Do

Rimless at the bowls'
Black
Night is drawn
Skirts and horses

Their
Procession upward
The suns'

fragmented
representations.

Malampus heals
is written on the white card.

Junctures
cold balm

at morning when he's
the moon that went away.

 

Tacit

Pale gold ether
only ginger ale in a wine glass.
Try and make from bent shadows
an alphabet
the sun put
on my mouth
these bars, an escape
from fire and these
that hold succulent
ovals tipped with minute crimson
particles
fell to the desk and
light is irretrievable.
Each skin,
flapping
silent
stenography.