alyse knorr

The Desire of the Moth for the Star

-Shelley 

is this that story again with the wings
& the sun    once you told me about your
limitless want     you told me    you told
me    yet still I’m all burning up    can you
read the smoky letters   can you smell
the charred-down wood    once you told
me about a girl with wings   & it was me

Less Than Everything Cannot Satisfy Man

 -Blake 

an evil thing this reaching
this kudzu choked low
round the waist    it grows
to live    it kills to grow
it ends not ever    beautiful
things are made of fire
& fire burns

Trouble

you came from cold    stuttering
wrenched engine     & red ribbon
cream    oh    darling   I’m quaking  
taut & pure     envisioned   lying
on your side   & me    a pile of elbows   
more stable   nailed down    in
this great shortage of houses   near
extinct & virused    the feature begins 
heel chained    new kind of debt
oh sweet one    let’s make for
the woods   no  love   sit there
& speak    forever on  nothing
I’m all tuned in

Evening

in your blue dress at the top
of the slide: your shoulders             

& your knees & all those
nights I stared at the wall  steel                

limbed while the Top 40 played
occasionally your elbow                

touched my arm & I bobbed
along not waving but drowning

did I shoot some gull from
the sky   did I kiss the poison

mouth of some talented witch
did I dare to eat a peach

what is the story behind this
shore I’m all washed up on