mumber 2 Archives » MumberMag

Luck

my shadow
my train.
Luck, this much
is plain:

hatchet face,
ratchet grin.
The bin
needs emptying

again—
too little.
It’s true, I’m in
the middle

my water bill be high as fuck, she says.

ma always said that water cleanses you
inside and out
if ya bored, take a shower
if ya sick, drink water
if ya sad, take a shower
if ya leg broke, drink water
if ya stank, take a shower

The least cricket of evening
is invisible, naked except for
its tiny violin, the lost bell
of its heart. Somewhere
in this room my terracotta
cricket with its sap-colored eyes
raises a hair-thin quiver

Flight Of the Bumblebee

What music would Korsakov write
if he were here on earth as the bees
are dying? Their hives weightless lungs
paper lanterns swaying on the wind?
Their queen done telling her endless
stories to stay alive, no longer daughter
of the immortal gods: Father Frost
and Mother Spring, her heart melting
for the love of a man.

Aubade with Mother Gone

And then it came back to me as I heard
a young boy practice his violin
under the concrete canopy of the park’s amphitheater

I Give Up

My husband looked at her, then at me—it was a look of amazement and pride. See what our child can do? He wasn’t thinking, say, that she was about to scald herself with hot water.