Installation 2: Within Reach
More or less jealous of the tantrum grocery girl unleashing a little whirlwind
into the aisle all kinds of color intersections we can only hope for at our age
pretty hard to peg this fluorescent obsession with her peeled open lungs bold
enough to wake sleeping birds some people suggest the two-point perspective is
all off in this painting teach me a tilted head stance even as we adore the dark
symmetry of a security guard’s folded arms getting up close & personal yes art
is all around think iceberg caressing alfalfa drink entire oceans of soup condensed
into shards of 20/20 vision just relax the back of the eyeballs here I go collecting
my favorite unperishables color & sound & rage move in waves out of our way
one tongue sharp enough to pixelate or penetrate the upper echelons all the while
getting easier if you practice your technique apocalypse crossed with abandon
just do us a favor & don’t write it down interpolations of the knight’s next move
making math out of misery remember last year like yesterday no matter what
the starting point the limelight and Caravaggio shadows under the pale moon skin
not all we’ve cracked up to be glass jars for miles go ahead & sing an unrecognizable
try spurring her on everything you hoped for notice the urge is unwieldy unwavering
slope & scream do you believe in the inevitable? tin elevator music washing over
us sad surfers can you dig it? take one fortress of cereal against whitewashed walls
not enough time to critique all these tiny hors d’ouerves to offset the stares all this
savoring of every new morsel only to find the meatiest ones still taste green to me
Steffi Drewes lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area and is a contributing poetry editor for MAKE: A Literary Magazine. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Fourteen Hills: The SFSU Review, No Tell Motel, Eleven Eleven, Monday Night, Beeswax and Shampoo.