5. A Manipulation of Thought
I like to think you will read this in a cluttered room,
with your hand on your chin
and a lamp on the table illuminating the soft white of the page.
I like to think you will smile as you read,
because you will think I am witty
or beautiful.
You will read this
in your personal place
quietly.
I like to think there is a picture frame
containing small pressed flowers
that make you think of yellowed wallpaper
or dreams.
There is a clock ticking somewhere to your left
and that is strange, because
how many clocks have hands anymore?
But you are a magician in your own right
you speak words that conjure death
in a small way.
My poetry remains in the ashes.
The words will dance across your eyelids
as you blink in the sunlight;
you emerge from your hermit shell
a momentary mirage in the heat waves off the pavement
they are words they are these words--
The delicate flowers--
and the sunlight.