A Secret We Return To

I've talked about Rattle before. I'm returning today with excerpts from Rattle poems. Click on a title to read the whole thing.

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excerpt from SO YOU WANT AN OPERA SINGER FOR A FRIEND,
FOR A LOVER, FOR KEEPS
by Siobhan Brannigan

My opera singer’s name is Leah, I recommend her.
Men fall in love with her when she goes to get the mail,
and not just mailmen, men from across the street,
men who have been following her for four days and want her
address to be their address, they would take her last name,
and just because of her humming. When she gasps,
hearts break. When she snores, marriages fall apart.
With Leah, I am always backstage. Still­...

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excerpt from MY GRANDMOTHER TOLD US JOKES
by Richard Beban

like the one about the man who
walked down the street
& turned into
a drugstore.

There was some secret in the moment
of that turning—when he was one thing,
became another—
that I return to again & again.

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excerpt from BEGINNER’S LESSON
by Malcolm Alexander

...Make nothing more of the moon
than what it is, a great big pebble
hunting for a shoe, not to be confused
with the heart, likewise a vagabond.

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excerpt from BECOMING AN ISLAND
by Tony Brusate

Whole days evaporate. Her body
turns to sand. She could be an island beach,
her bedsheets a briny foam upon her shores.
The men of the island stand waist deep casting
their hand-tied nets toward the surf. Women on shore
sort baskets for fish. Dark naked children scamper
through the breaking waves laughing and swinging sticks.
There is no too quiet house, no dog
coming upstairs to lick her face, to see she’s still alive.
And later, no children or husband returning
from school or work, puzzled
by this, her fourth whole day in bed...

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Toby has today's Poetry Friday round-up.