1
After the first rain
shove up what’s been
buried in the flowerbeds
The teeth. The toy trucks
The steak knife
2
Use your
face
to bend
the others
3
Bleed brighter
4
Stay in
the sharp part
of the story
until it hurts
right. Find
that small
voice and
stretch it
5
Fog the changes
6
Manifest your walkers
in earlier clothes
7
No neon
8
No fanny packs
9
Look out your windows
with both hands
10
Burn the fresh paint off
as soon as it’s applied
Leave only the first name
the middle no last
11
Embrace the fact that dust
is always singing
12
Set the dogs to barking only
in the smallest hours
13
Wait. Wait
Squeezebox the staircase
Lurch the floor
Tunnel everyone into
the nursery
14
Work the pipes,
the ducts, the chimney
15
Morse code antique door handles
in ¾ time
16
Don’t neglect
the out buildings
the garden
Don’t neglect
the statuary. Brighten
the little drawings
17
Call, recall, you’re all
of it, peak to crawlspace
18
Follow the scars in the floor
for a few more decades
before you fit them to the wheels
19
Control your breath until you
shed your skin in reverse
20
Spiders of course and snakes
but a 4 point buck standing
in the kitchen chewing grass
is even better
21
Say the weakest’s name
when they’re in the shower
22
Say it again later when
they’re getting themselves close
23
Say it more softly as they wander
through you calling
hello hello hello
24
Let the grass in the buck’s mouth
turn to a young child’s hair
25
Do all that
three more times
Michael Sikkema is from the Great Lakes region and is the author of Caw Caw Phony, forthcoming from Trembling Pillow Press, 2021.
Image: worthpoint.com
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Heavy Feather Review 
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