1990s textless house, & in pieces
brush-alert warm sky
fieldspan a window and night-for-night imbalance
its focal points
are frame left to right, top down
smooth slow, angle change
rectangle click, I spy
who’s the voyeur
& from where
II.
the man has a tattoo on his hip, yellow, red, green he waits for everyone to leave
his body is felt so much in sleep the way it fits
he says, tongue-to-tongue is all he wants the woman is disappointed (the lower
hip means to open up, vulnerability) she draws him to & down her throat
she picks up his phone he is on a reel there, in a desert
the woman turns off turns, there are
voices in the street so lightly saying
“this empty star is sad, is sad, has such sad eyes”
there are icons on
windowsills way way down, their long glint
gives the city a name
III.
Elsewhere I was a daughter, I was a mother, I was either/or.
We were tracked to a house by men. I knew what would happen. Circumstance nameless, open door. She was taken upstairs, I followed. I said to them — take me instead. One man said yes, take her. She is experienced. Give or take a fixed fight it felt like any type of wreck, pretty old to me. Behind closed curtains, I lay down, I spied. I sucked. I sucked by inch. I tried to take control of the rape. Sat backwards on his face & talked dirty. Another man asks is she awake? In the dream I thought, my current feelings are silent on this. I never say what I want.
IV.
on an excursion
of ten years removed, that
blue blank sky- no freedom
the others, they wear
old faces
walk through doors to expanse of lawn
held hands lost millimeter by mm. minutely slow until
moving apart but side by side
I somehow got away I hear myself “for years the —
for years it was like this”
V.
I ask people, have you seen someone?
A woman [elegant, fearless, fertile] stands on a white-wood porch, says,
on one of those sensual islands, I hear you know he cut his throat here’s a flower
Jane Lewty is the author of Bravura Cool (1913 Press: 2013) selected by Fanny Howe as the winner of the 1913 First Book Prize in 2011. Her poems have been published in Tarpaulin Sky, Bone Bouquet, The Volta and jubilat, among others.