C.D. Wright

Re: Happiness, in pursuit thereof

It is 2005, just before landfall.
Here I am, a labyrinth, and I am a mess.
I am located at the corner of Waterway
and Bluff. I need your help. You will find me
to the left of the graveyard, where the trees
grow especially talkative at night,
where fog and alcohol rub off the edge.
We burn to make one another sing;
to stay the lake that it not boil, earth
not rock. We are running on Aztec time,
fifth and final cycle. Eyes switch on/off.
We would be mercurochrome to one another
bee balm or chamomile. We should be concrete,
glass, and spandex. We should be digital or,
at least, early. Be ivory-billed. Invisible
except to the most prepared observer.
We will be stardust. Ancient tailings
of nothing. Elapsed breath. No,
we must first be ice. Be nails. Be teeth.
Be lightning.

From Rising, Falling, Hovering, by C.D. Wright
Copyright 2008 by C.D. Wright

Key Episodes From An Earthly Life

…

As surely as there are crumbs on the lips
of the blind I came for a reason

I remember when the fields were no taller
than a pencil do you remember that

I told him I’ve got socks older than her
but he would not listen

Those dark Arkansas roads that is the sound
I am after the choiring of crickets

Around this time of year especially evening
I love everything I sold enough eggs

To buy a new dress I watched him drink the juice
of our beets And render the light liquid

I came to talk you into physical splendor
I do not wish to speak to your machine

From Steal Away: selected and new poems, by C.D. Wright
Copyright © C.D. Wright, 2002