Rae Armantrout

Covers

The man
slapped her bottom  
like a man did
in a video,

then he waited  
as if for shadow
to completely cover the sun.

Moments later  
archeologists found him.

*

The idea that they were reenacting something which had been staged in the first place bothered her. If she wanted to go on, she’d need to ignore this limp chronology. She assumed he was conscious of the same constraint. But she almost always did want to proceed. Procedure! If only either one of them believed in the spontaneity of the original actors and could identify with one. Be one. For this to work, she reasoned, one of us would have to be gone.

*
“Well, look who missed  
the fleeting moment,”

Green Giant gloats  
over dazed children.

If to transpose  
is to know,

we can cover our losses.

But only  
If talking,

Formerly food,

Now meant  
Not now

So recovery  
Ran rings.

If to traverse  
is to envelop,

I am held
and sung to sleep.

#FreeVerse #Mixed Poem, Prose

Other works by Rae Armantrout...



Top