origin 4 notes in origin index ellie epp


dugout

 

 

 

window into ground creatures making paths were here, a track around

 

i run it, three times clockwise not slipping

harsh breath below in the chest

 

the tracks over the mound all of the hill is marked

into hard grey fur

 

the paths with their clear reasons, coming from the ends of

the fields

 

shadows into water show brown

 

my skeletonned carcass aboriginal not a civilized

body, i am not a young animal, the sections of the body

separate thin leg my pole the pole set into

water three stones and one in the water, a platform

 

water when it runs has cut a path also, banks, soft earth

falling out of cut banks below grass rim stones thrown into

this draw it makes a grove, holes, stones thrown, small

trees and larger, polished brown by rubbing backs

 

the water took on clouds dead and live branches

 

the aromatic plants, barley over the fence

 

oh thunder making a long road wandering up there

 

mosquitoes surface touched constantly by flies

 

climbed a tree, strong round plant ladder

 

sat in a fork at the top round leaves flashed

 

 

 

you're far away you forget

i was at a place

that was a dugout

that had trails made by animals

i made a simple wharf and a sign

and liked the shadows in the water that were

brown

you don't know how far away i am from you and

i think i asked you whether you could

help me to measure

and you were phantoms

again and again it's history

that i want to do away with

 

(cough)

 

and speak of in this voice

that doesn't believe itself

nor this one either

 

i made a fire i made fire

but then who are they

i made myself someone who would see them

as i do see them

or who would not be able to bear to see them

they - she knows about literature, but

she doesn't want to know about this

 

 

hurried home to burn their pictures, sacrifice

something

of theirs

 

hurried back to the slope of the hill, sleeping bag,

thinking of loose earth, grass comes up around it, those

silvery plants, feathery ones

 

pale blue and pink sky the moon on the left and the sun

going down on the right

 

 

 

 

indian hill indian bones