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Sweet Talk
(in lieu of a valentine)
for Meredith
Sugar it says on the box
Corn sugar is this
Corn starch what little girls
are made of all these hearts
their money back
guarantee this box chock full
fat love bright candies taste
like cardboard with the name
Life Brand all sweetened
artificial flavours send
the same message
no matter what the words
Kiss Me says one Call home
or ILU there must be something
here for you and me
and as I search I wonder
something for everyone
mixed messages mixed matter
does Fax Home pink on blue
mean UR Mine
nestled beneath Go Home
comfort the lonely hearts
which say hard red on white
two words two lines Home
Sick for you and me share one
heart here says And
In the Night
breath
rain’s soft plod
on the skylight spatters
flurried dull
smattering at two a.m. dim
or maybe three light patter next
quiet silent stop paused syncope
in your steady breath a
counterpoint almost for
thirty years some car goes by
its light smothering the ceiling
now not so dark
comes day.
53 Words
all very well outside a new
leaf the neighbours fence whose
grass inside what seed pens
windows and a blind car goes
by the perhaps gate on its uneasy
post unsung a part song.
Thin clouds the day so many not in work
unpenned goods written out lie
round tight corners
what apart.
[previously published in Backwoods Broadsides 95 (Ellsworth, Maine) 2005]
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