from Scattering Dogs Toward Light
3
The relief
associated with the color blue
in Nebraska
the vane tells us which
way the
weather the vane takes the shape
of a fox
bones as
birds’ tools words abound
about what
certain objects imply must not be in evidence (old man
fat
boy) the house on the hill or
what one teaches oneself
The singularity of a 3-shop town would be wrong viewed
as
quaint it is and in some places the feeling of
felt writing page upon page about the
hides of big-horn sheep
pinned up in the park like
laundry
Beginning or green coming out
in every motel in
Nebraska the way one does things do not disturb but
what one
does please service the vulture the kite
the
hawk not to do as they do
but to sense the hawk
the
owl contributing bodily their remains the cormorant
the wish to not know if it does not come from one’s
guts the hawk the
osprey the fence stapled to a motel
wall as its ribs the heron
the stork reclaiming what’s gaping not just to finish the hollowed out
remaining that way until what needs to enter
appears the parts
I do with no consideration of belonging
2
For coming out in Gibbons Nebraska
The defense believes Goldblum is entitled to relief image
incapable
of repose a bird’s body
as its
tool its breast with which
it tightens
and tamps its bits and twigs
The house on a hill remembers a calm nest
Failing objection the bird hollows out its house
the body
turning round pressing back and
round
the
walls evidence still missing make it feel like felt
knowing a way to stand
At times I forget which
is green which is old
the
eagle the black vulture the red kite a man I know
the
raven the horned owl she doesn’t want to know
where her
food comes from the screech owl
the gull any hawk chunky light what remains
is what is
left to take shape the cormorant
the desert
owl the osprey bone as slight resistance
the
stork the heron
These are the birds to avoid
eating the unclean
and the woman who births a
girl we must not
touch for 66 days
This was all meant to be told to a man known as Lamppost
the Supreme Court
transfers jurisdiction of the
case Goldblum
appeals to a special panel a pelvis seated parallel
to the earth the court panel affirms all
judgments
fat-boy or old man This has import
the town of Farson was bought by one family
the feed store the station the parlor a package
deal
The first coming out was from a
borrowed closet in a motel off the
interstate
in
Nebraska to avoid becoming
stark our lips touched
and touched again each room was done up in a different era
by the inn-keepers
wife and Super Walmart ours was
Victorian love setting up in swoons and
the moment speech absconds
with the shadowy ruffles the dry heat
lack of words suspended the
picket fence and an
abundance of cheap lace
surrounded us a house on a
hill means a steep drive
to it patterns desired so keenly they become the turn in the drive
a retention of breath
relatives echo ‘we didn’t care what she got into only that she
finish’ knowing what to stand upon from this angle it’s gaping
Susan Scarlata is sitting in a desert rainstorm. Her work can be found in Fence, Conduit, and the Horse Less Review. She is an editor at Lost Roads Publishers, she is currently in a doctoral program at the University of Denver, and also works on getting kids to like and write poems.