Gretchen

When the ice starts to shiver

all across the reflecting basin

or water-lily leaves

dissect a simple surface

the word ‘drowning’ flows through me.

You built a glassy floor

that held me

as I leaned to fish for old

hooks and toothed tin cans,

stems lashing out like ties of

silk dressing-gowns

archangels of lake-light

gripped in mud.

Now you hand me a torn letter.

On my knees, in the ashes, I could never

fit these ripped-up flakes together.

In the taxi I am still piecing

what syllables I can

translating at top speed like a thinking machine

that types out ‘useless’ as ‘monster’

and ‘history’ as ‘lampshade’.

Crossing the bridge I need all my nerve

to trust to the man-made cables.

The blades on that machine

could cut you to ribbons

but its function is humane.

Is this all I can say of these

delicate books, scythe-curved intentions

you and I handle? I’d rather

taste blood, yours or mine, flowing

from a sudden slash, than cut all day

with blunt scissors on dotted lines

like the teacher told.

Besides the motif of nature vs man, and not being able to trust men, and transformation, do you have any other insight?

my prompt is: prove something.

Okay- so i have the Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo x2.. and i really want to know how to use these texturs things to make a collage, but i dont get it... HELP? just explain all you know..

I have this history project and i need to know a battle that isn't "Shiloh, Antedum, Fredriksburg, or the 2nd bull run" and it has to be during 1862.. anyone got any good ones? or maybe a website or something?

People always say slavery.. i was wondering if its something else?

Im doing a history project. Were reinacting the civil war, and i need to right journal entries.. i want to say "so thats how i got here in ______ B (or something) ...."

For example are they camps or infatrys (?).. or what?

PLEASE HELP SOON!