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With 'pompeian figures' and 'a lost world’s weather,' the third volume of a little trilogy from the poet’s samuddo/ocean project.
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let’s forget
John Martone
samuddo / ocean2016
let’s forget copyright © 2016 John Martone
samuddo / oceanjohnmartone @gmail.com
let’s forget
Le mosche abbondano quest'anno, come sempre. A proposito: si chiede a che servono le mosche. Chia-ro, che a nutrir le rondini. E le rondini? Chiaro, che a insegnare agli uomini (perciò si mettono sopra le loro finestre) tante cose: l'amore della famiglia e del nidietto. La prima capanna che uomo costruì, di terra seccata al sole, alla sua donna, gli insegnò una coppia di rondini a costruirla. Ciò fu al tempo dei nomadi. Le rondini viaggiatrici insegnarono all’uo-mo di fermarsi. E gli dettero il modellino della casa. Solo, l’uomo lo capovolse.
— Giovanni Pascoli
5
the house abandonedgrasses reach tobuddha’s sternum
6
when you return bleeding hearts are full of windblown trash
7
you thought you’d dug out all that thornbush
all the branches dangling maple-wingsthat’s how you feel
8
neighbors agingpine limbs sweepthe roof peak
a new doorbell peace and quiet
9
rainy day that rusty gate’s a grackle
taking to heart this practice of oblivion you clone the jade plant
10
the eaves drip in codeyou can’t name that star
violets you thought you were painting a seascape
11
bruised a rib coughing —april showers
dreaming at last I’m swimming
12
endless rain you get back in the car your lungs are clear
finally tulips in the rain door swollen shut
13
while listening to kitchen clock’s second-handthe pines!
as long as there’s more laundry to do — this
14
dandelions in the basil pot —don’t be bitter
white violets my fingers are dirty
15
after that first day in the garden trimming your nails
pick and shovel —sad to think — done replantingthe family fig tree
16
on looking up from the broken shell a nestling’s eyes
last of that phlegm coughed-up while planting bulbs
17
knee-shape gladiolus bulbsand these knees
hundred more gladioli to plant —imagine
18
planting gladioli —mother had such brown eyes
gladioli planted in rows and now — let’s forget
19
light spirals down this pine — a fledgling doveand me —
ciborium the fledgling dovefills its nest
20
also innate — the fledgling dove’s fluttering cry first flight
no one knows howthe fledgling dove’s eyetakes you in
21
rolled-up pill bug rolls back and forth palm-reading
beetle flies off slowly — it’s a wholesky
22
digging up a small patch till the mail comes
we sit outside rocking at different speedsevening star
23
just call them doves this springnot mourning doves
old saw
oak leaves the size of mouse ears time to plant corn
24
history the first bee comes as you’re spreadingmulch over old news
last of spring beauties a dove egg shell in pieces
25
mailmantalks to himself something for me
garden work —sole splits offthe old shoe
26
garden fence the gardener’s only trouble
empty chair across from me spring evenings
27
evening sunthrough a windowyou need to wash
28
evening sun on the brass lock-setblinding
moon’s whitenessthrough pear treeblossoms as well
29
familiar stars — the front door not locked
long drive to the stained-glass windowsthe same light
30
clean as can be —mud-daubers inspect my wash on the line
sweetgum balls everywhere underfootI’ve come full circle
31
pine trees candlethe fledgling dove has no choice
may apple heart’s ease
my knees give out
32
solitude deepens water sparkles in your jelly jar drinking glass
the seventeen-year cicadas ready themselves —the last time
33
poem after poem rain drips from the eave
the storm blew down that norfolk pine my lace-leaf maple sparkles
34
yellow wood sorrel —a thousand miles from here yellow wood sorrel
under a pile of all those others the outermost shore
35
wild strawberries flower —you keep to the pavers
jet shrieks overheadyou can’t keep upwith the weeding
36
I wake up by such a tall windowI’m almost outside
grass gone to seed out front — he wearshis good jacket
37
doves back-and-forth from a nest outside my windowI try to sit still
returning to nature I stake a small treebefore the storm
38
nightfall robin songsame-length sentences --then it stops
yellow flowers of the sungetting plowed backinto earth
39
he steps down firmly around the seedling a poem sinks in
nowhere now — pond at an interstate clover-leafsomeone fishing
40
backyard grape-stock —you’ve no ideawhat you’re doing
41
after the earthquake we slept outside for a month —90 years now
1929
their supper in Frigentoa bowl of pastaand he dropped it
42
two days now no mail in the box there you are
43
dried tomatoes in olive oil by a slabof pecorino
the pine tree candles a bagworm goes the other way
44
stars above the alleythat childhood stairwell
redwing blackbird a small mark this backyardon the prairie
45
you discover an ancestor’s datesyour daughter goes for a walk
mockingbird and crowand that one you can’t name what spring’s about
46
and yet — every stone of this stone housedisplaced
47
trees leafing out the house disappears
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