Tell It Slant
From the book Second Skin
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.