Susan Charkes
I Am Not Who I Am
1.
The beech bark sky
What falls—feathers
I eat—feathers
The bluebird in the frame
What falls—leaves
The bluebird out of the frame
I eat—leaves
The bluebird in the frame
What falls—bark
The sky is full of blackbirds.
The bluebird out of the frame.
I eat—blackbirds.
What falls—
I eat—
2.
I stop traffic to move
a turtle out of the frame.
I am not a member
of the turtle clan.
3.
today I am a pipe
O Mao you are a framed poster now
power > out of the barrel
into the pipe
peace > out of
the passing
(of the pipe)
one end of the pipe is out of the frame
one end of the pipe is out of the frame
passing the pipe moves the frame
4.
there were more of them than I remember
at the signal, each in a hollowed-out beech tree—the fires lit
5.
pop, caught on
pop, speared by
pop, crushed between
pop, slit through
pop, hollowed out
pop, scalded with
pop, buried under
pop, suffocated in
pop, wrenched around
flourishing amongst the scattered ejecta were numerous and diverse armored
pop, batted down
pop, stamped upon
pop, flayed until
pop, pressed into
pop, substituted for
6.
dug into the bark(full of sky)
corner, a wedge(bones in flight)
Susan Charkes lives and writes in southeastern Pennsylvania. A poetry chapbook, sp., is forthcoming from The Operating System.
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