Molten Smile

Foot on birch round

for lumbar support.

Books of

Baudelaire

Harrison

Hesse

and Thoreau.

Piece of clay pipe

And two white shells,

found near Cloghane

in Brandon Bay,

on the desk,

with a flattened slug

from her .38

pulled from her target tree.

“Ohne Hast, Ohne Rast.”

-a mantra for each day.

Shrines for her include:

scissors

sewing needles

thread

pliers

ruler

gems

beads

spectacles

brass and silver

settings

she made,

guitar picks.

Word-symbols

express

the vitality

of one now extinguished

her lips,

once brimming

bursting

now a dry riverbed.

Box of ashes

in her studio,

5 lbs. with bits of bone.

I still feel

her fingers tips

dripping on my shoulders

her rose petal lips

slipping down my neck

and behind my ear,

still see her

outside this very window

in pink rain slicker

moving granite

stones and boulders

down the hill,

still revel in

the memory

of the eruption

of her smile

as the pilleated’s hammer

echoes through

these pre-storm woods,

branches bending,

flailing.