Where she wove it, orange, the border thread is<\/p>\n
a reminder. That other side. She the gatekeeper \/ the remnant weaver
\nlimping around in the stitching.<\/p>\n
The real version My parents hung it above the stairs going down to the den, where Where the house shows the seams of itself<\/p>\n At the ragged edge \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the orange thread Are you wearing yourself into the weaving<\/span><\/p>\n She, all fur and fingers Hung up with the other family portraits Standing next to his wife a fan of birds<\/span><\/p>\n The edge of something should never be a line, I learned Each piece of the body becomes a code, I mean, language Where the stone is actually broken and missing<\/p>\n How to arrive at the city of the dead<\/p>\n Where his daughter sits folded in the triangle of his legs You must turn sideways to slip through the wall<\/span><\/p>\n When they discovered the mummy\u2019s true identity, they sent him back to his country of origin, and It\u2019s all familiar Though I never was there At night, I ran past the dark stairway, afraid of the dead space<\/span><\/p>\n To mark the edge and its unreality, orange<\/p>\n All the flashlights rolling around in front of my fingers<\/span><\/p>\n
\nWhatever that means
\nIt\u2019s on a museum wall that looks like this
\nwhite and flat<\/span>
\nthe unmarked entryway<\/span><\/p>\n
\nthe floors split themselves into upper and lower
\njust a slight tilt<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwhere the stone is actually broken and missing<\/p>\n
\nThe soft of her remaining stretched across this frame<\/p>\n
\nhe hunts with a spear in the Nile marshes \/ on the outskirts
\nof New Jersey<\/p>\n
\nhis legs angled against the boat floor, the marsh line<\/span><\/p>\n
\nin art class, a long time ago<\/p>\n
\nhas always had the outline of a body, ankles.<\/p>\n
\nin the flat plane of image<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwere rewarded with a false door. I\u2019ve also never been dead.<\/p>\n
\nthe birds<\/span>
\nthe open-mouthed cat<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0swarming fish at the base<\/p>\n
\nin the scene or in the weaving
\nor the museum I imagine hunched over a river<\/p>\n