Proper Motion
The things we count on not to move
have always been moving.
The fallen tree was once young,
grown from the dropped
maple key of an elder tree, a hillside
or two up. The stars we use
to navigate are not welded to the dark
wall of space, they twist
and sway, Edison bulbs dangling near
a ceiling fan. The patch
of ocean you once stood in, you will
never find it again, and
jutting from the street like silver
stitches, one block’s
worth of trolley rail, trolleys gone
for eighty years now.
Really like how you work in the reference to the trolley' "jutting . . . like silver stitches" is a lovely image of the rail.
ReplyDeleteDitto Maureen. Also, for me the whole thing picks up power at "The stars" and sustains it. The universal quivering . . . I might like this one even better than the next (Mar. 27).
ReplyDeleteLots of great references. The scale of natural to people-made was seamless. I really liked the star/bulb comparison.
ReplyDelete