View of the Adirondacks Today - For My Sisters

THE USES OF NATURE
It could have been dawn splintered by the sill
or some bright planks of yesterday
painted but forgotten and leaned against the wall
But I do not pretend an afterlife
not even for qualities That is why it is so poignant
what you do with this one
Almost no one is born at home light or day
and no one is less mysterious
At the festival yesterday a woman sold beadwork
She made ticks and mice
and scorpions a platypus a flea
She said for a child the heart moves over
and you begin to think of mint and unusual animals
No one is making these rats
This one is nothing you would know of she says
like people in paintings
that pretend living pretend movement
Do you have the dog that eats the moon a missle
No those are things men want
things brutal and useless But we are the women
We string secrets

by Allan Peterson
ALLAN PETERSON won the 2005 Juniper Prize at The University of Massachusetts Press for his manuscript, All the Lavish in Common.