from Eclogue: A Field Guide and Cure

1

In your imagination of their crimes,
for you have already imagined them,
there must be a bronze bell.
It behooves you
to imagine it ring
and the rain that follows.

2

It rained and we did nothing about it—
the court said there is no further explanation needed
if maps minus borders equals debt.

3

Let’s say his name
is indecipherable
from the plants
around him

Let’s say I haven’t
spoken his name out loud yet.

Yerba santa, Chapparal Broom.

4

His time and his procurement like blue division.
If tragedy plus time equals comedy
then six hummingbirds are nailed to a wall.

5

The prison museum was called The Big House.
I went to school where the football stadium
was also called The Big House
and where people also screamed and screamed. 

6

There is shame here but not how you imagine it.
Sunflower seeds evenly placed on a table,
the sound of them opening and closing
like the palms of a careful priest.

7

Black locust for fever,
for the tumors that grow
in whatever empty space was left in your body.
Emetic sweet gum to move
the pain in your mouth in circles
until it feels like stirring a large pot
of warm broth in winter.

8

The gold bell ringing mad.
You are lovely in the eyes of the state.
The court recommends an explanation.
The hummingbird now no longer turning its head—

9

Henceforth
[Cheers from the inmates]
[Cheers from the guards]
[Cheers and screaming and more cheers and more screaming]

10

Dear son, idle brother,
your blue opera swimming down river.
Your greatest good of the bronze redemption
and the last bird thrumming like a nervous finger.

I document the oldest tree in existence.
I run into a bell flower,
I run into a field and clamor of bells.