May Swenson

Cardinal Ideograms

A mouth.  Can blow or breathe,
 be a funnel, or Hello.
 
A grass blade or a cut.
 
A question seated.  And a proud
 bird’s neck.
 
Shallow mitten for two-fingered hand.
 
Three-cornered hut
 on one stilt.  Sometimes built
 so the roof gapes.
 
A policeman.  Polite.
 Wearing visored cap.
 
O unrolling,
 tape of ambiguous length
 on which is written the mystery
 of everything curly.
 
A step,
 detached from its stair.
 
The universe in diagram:
 A cosmic hourglass.
 (Note enigmatic shape,
 absence of any value of origin,
 how end overlaps beginning.)
 Unknotted like a shoelace
 and whipped back and forth,
 can serve as a model of time.
 
Lorgnette for the right eye.
 In England or if you are Alice
 the stem is on the left.
 
A grass blade or a cut
 companioned by a mouth.
 Open?  Open.  Shut?  Shut.
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