from the cactusland - nicole kagan/poetry

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Sedimentary Knowledge

Tonight I emerge,
holding a deliberate shape of you.

A subtle awareness
of parts of you that now reside in me.
-the spaces between a series of Russian-wooden-dolls,
one more inside the other

The space that sings of perfect tension.

I slip,
slanted with the weight of you
echoing in my layers,

Scar

Like that scar on my knee
when I flew off my bike
and just on the border of healing
I fell again,
and again,

until the falling,
and the proof of its motion,
was x-rayed, fossilized,
etched on my skin forever.

Evidence of flight.

Renewal

Wind sews hems into the ocean.
Stitching waves
to compose a memory-quilt.

A wet calendar,
whose fluid pages erase marks made
on tired shores.

My body continuously forgets
with each washing wave.

She is a Painting

rubs her eyes
yawns into the cup of her hand

sighs her weight into the leather couch

sunlight paints her shadows
stares across
he room

She waits as dusk fixes her image
frames this moment

That Which Makes Her She

see the invisible
graceful satin string
that echoes the curve of shoulder
follows the delicate dip
and saunters up to neck

(the spot reserved for trembling lips to trace)

satin sheen of collarbone
pleads of beauty
strikes clear and startling
catches in the throat.

Map

your lips left a burning map on my skin
of rivers and streets
where I lost my sense of direction
and you found yours

Why is there is always a place to get to.

Something Ends

light faded squares
on the wall
when a photograph
is taken down

absence of sound from the base of my throat
auditorium
where collarbones meet
to echo sounds of sighs

remove clouds from sky
gaping empty smudges
cloud shadow
underpainting of rain

absence: an emptiness
the sharply defined space
when something is cut
out

I am seeking the crease made between palm and wrist

mailing you my remaining feelings
leftover from the time we had together.