Evolving Composition

Plume is a pretty word—think peacock feather,

showgirl’s seduction.    Even eruption

doesn’t say what the Bacchae knew:

we tear apart our gods to bite

& eat the bits we like.     You like

to think you’d live without (Ruth Stone

walked to the pond for water in winter.)

Is this how it’s supposed to be

what it comes to.    On the monitor, oil appears

to levitate, a long-form corrido.    Now

the clouds look different.     Face it:

your American accent is a pistol

a way of worming through.

When brown pelicans can’t swim through

take off your father’s coke bottle

glasses, your skirt made of neckties.

Where eleven workers stood, pull down

your words, pennants in the struck air.

alison meyers

Alison Meyers ©2009. All Rights Reserved.