Thunder, Lightning
From here I cannot but peek. From whence we came… no, for whence we… When we say
the word “whence” what synapses wince. Forever pickling I peek. My steel water carrier
leaks. John fetch a new comb! My hair. Oil. Wanting to be sleek. Roses are red. Roses are…
the roaches are not as many here—though the stink greater. How babbling rivers speak, now
that they have turned putrid I see. Out into the air—I peek. From upon where? We came
from another hill. Now, caskets of damp wood: our sleep. From babies to mothers. Rags.
I can’t remember the blood but I taste metal. The narrator peeks. We are looking through
a tiny hole. Through the woods we go… to grandmother’s house we… someone mop up the
blood, please. It is slippery here. I have always known this was coming. The melancholia
was in the well water. Cupping and spooning it. What is it? A pronoun is a handkerchief
of no determined pattern. I used to grab them to catch my nosebleeds in the forest. Here
I can’t see the forest for the… Do you remember trees? Remember what Rose wanted was…
no matter, all we have here is this crate and the musk of the end. When language dies,
we go with it, muddy and celestial and everything I see I have only peeked. So I sing.
We are too tiny to be sad about this to be or not to be. I heard one time a wise pig say…
Hakuna Ma... When life gives you lemons… what is it? Lemon he she we be. It! Give peace
a… whence. Live and let… give yourself to me. Rosewater. The roaches have become enormous and dead on their backs. Our words much smaller. Are they more alive this time? I
think Rose wanted peace. Or a piece of it. The barn here is rust. Metallic on the tongue.
Something needs a deep, fortified cleaning. All this grease. It’s the happiest… no, the
merriest… no, the dustiest place on earth, here where we can see, and see that we have
only peeked.
Nancy Lynée Woo is a poet from southern California
who spends her free time hitching a ride to the other
side of maybe. Her work has been published in The
Subterranean Quarterly, Chapparal, Cadence Collective
and Cease, Cows, among others. You can follow her on
Twitter @fancifulnance.