The 2River View 20.3 (Spring 2016)
spacer
spacer

Patrick Lawler


Bless the Words We Have Created
That Send Us Back Pictures of the World

Bless                           the butterfly caught in the mouth
            Bless the rain caught in the clouds

Bless the space between crash and rejuvenation
Bless the blue                                                 bless the devoured

            Bless the cross-dressing cowboys
            Bless the circle

Bless the thimble
Bless the body of the Dying Mother

Bless
            the spool that unwound us

                        Bless the moth’s wing
            that leaves its dustprint on the air

Bless the breaths of the Beautiful Girl
                                    Bless the inside

Bless the mouth
            Bless the mouth inside the mouth

Bless the Animals Bless the Beatific
Bless Leslie Marmon Silko

The Beautiful Boy studies the history of leaving
At first he thinks he is allergic to thought

The Beautiful Girl sings to the Beautiful Boy
Newscasters should tell us what horses are thinking

We need to be receptacles for rainwater
Dirt speaks to us                                 Magnets speak to us

Bless the Alveolar                   Bless Inter-seeing
Newscasters should tell us what clouds ponder

The Beautiful Boy and the Beautiful Girl
make love during a festival of kites

She moves toward him one word at a time
His mask—the soft openings in language

Her voice is an electric string
                                    attached to his heart

Patrick Lawler has published six collections of poetry, the most recent of which are Underground (Notes Toward an Autobiography) and Child Sings in the Womb. contact


<< Catherine Connell
 
Keagan LeJeune
>>
spacer
Copyright 2River. Please do not use or reproduce without permission.