The Changing of Unsteady Shapes

MARGARET HOEHN

There are nights so pierced and clear that

the body aches to be something different

or new.  Even the gray ceiling of a shabby

motel longs to be lit with starlight; the

streets want to flow into marshes and

streams; and the old grocery on the corner,

with its peeling paint and dusty porch,

wants to sink in the grass and dream

itself back to prairie and sky.  Beneath

this cool, angel-stacked light we can feel

the deepening shift of the hours, and how

the words: my life, my life, alter in their

form and shape in the moments that they

are spoken.  Already, the parts of the body

that want to sleep grow dense with roots

and dreams; the parts that will not rest:

sing a little to themselves, weave a coat of

feathers and moss, study the secrets of flight.


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