The Life Fact Shines
Eleni, don’t drive so fast
˜˜˜˜˜˜
In my house I have a girl, a funny
little blonde, & a window, take
stock, a rose bush that keeps her
(the soul) from flying off
two legs thus far hold me pinned to the ground
and still ten fingers clacking around
the cups and plates of the house
In that house, I have a dictionary
of fabulous, ominous words others
with words in French, in Greek
The words never match up like two left
hands facing each other hand la main the outlines are messy
hold up life & life & try to trace them: the moving
shadows and their figurines bleed
which is to say I see I am not in love with
my objects but I am in love with
their colors I am in love with their
curves but not in love with their
tenacity I hate & love their entropy, bury
the picture in the background, the little bird
in the back
yard
the cracked blue cup in the dirt
the mouse the cats dug up
the gutted corpse of the raccoon the new
old moon the gate & the broken door
glass shards in the garden
Eleni Sikelianos is the author of the just released, Make Yourself Happy (Coffee House Press 2017)You Animal Machine, The Loving Detail of the Living & the Dead (Coffee House Press, 2014/2013), Body Clock (Coffee House Press, 2008), The Book of Jon (City Lights Publishers, 2004), The California Poem (Coffee House Press, 2004), The Monster Lives of Boys & Girls (Green Integer, 2003), Earliest Worlds (Coffee House Press, 2001), The Book of Tendons (Post-Apollo Press, 1997), and To Speak While Dreaming (Selva Editions, 1993). She has won numerous awards for her writing, has taught at Naropa and the University of Denver. This fall she will begin her tenure as part of the the teaching faculty of Brown University. She rocks.
