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lustral

January 29, 2015

by Natalie Helberg

(i come out of sleep water come from the river       surging
surfacing unclean):

that river          full of sleep sweat now i must wash in reality birds
administer their beaks their backs tender but trivial this (day is)
a shower on me flirting burning i turn down the tapping water foam
of my palm pecked at delinquent          short-lived quick-pick dissipation

a puncture mark

or the drain going down

slurping & stertorous &

slow

 

claimsome:

density (as such) abbreviates what matted

her tongue aslant           & sinuous chute

brinks rig bid difficult (a day)

 

fulsome & thoughtfulsome

(if knowing could be daubing resinous fog substance:
his breakfast of bactroban his knife in bees’ bactroban
first grey           then sweet):

 

unformed of thought (you      me) the antipodes of a table

…implacably tectonic        (contemplative
with tilt       in a year or two are stranger to
each other      (confounding factors: controlled for)

(the trace of traffic:              controlled for)


This poem “lustral” originally appeared in 21st-Century Poetics. Spec. issue of Canadian Literature 210-211 (Autumn/Winter 2011): 59.

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