Claire's Poetry Corner | Aug 2

Make it New

Alice Fulton

I find it helpful to imagine writing in a blizzard

with every inscription

designed to prevent snow

crystals from drifting in.

Avoid the hive mind. Go fly a kite,

raise a stained glass window in the sky.

It’s the opposite of making love to drudgery,

what I do for a dying.

Remove the bitter sediment

trapped in the brewer. It will be new

whether you make it new

or not. It will be full of neo-

shadows. Full of then — both past and next,

iridescent with suspense. Remember

time is not the treasure revealer.

More a midge larva creeping

through a waterfall releasing

suction feet. The curiosity rover

lands on Mars! New is a hooligan.

It breaks the reckoning frame and rests

in pieces. Let me collect its dna

from the tears on your desk.