Tell It Slant

Have to sail at an angle,
never directly into the wind –
other things too –

can’t look right at the sun,
the world, only visible
in the light that falls around it;

and in books as well,
the best drawn characters most often
evolve through indirection:

a lipstick smear on a collar,
contents of a bedroom drawer.

I imagine, for some reason,
a single two by twelve board
I need to lean against a barn –

it won’t even stand unless
I place it at an angle.

I don’t know how many other
things like this are true,

but I like trying
to see her words –

the tall right triangle the barn
and board create together,

the purple tufts of clover
slightly darker in the grass.