Jen Crawford


Dear Eveline (Draft)

dear eveline,

the tern skims
torn silver

then bloom, deep in the glass.
a slack sail, a turn –
could be coral if I reached could be
stone dead in seconds,
a balloon palely rising

to morbidity, in your last
a weakness. snake mouth
under. the drag-handed clatter
through secrets, jewelbox
open, anchor rope
to sifting & the shadow eye ship

drifts behind

thought you were
a lantern, sister, & after all
these years sunning
in tourmaline lawns you flick
the light away, brush cold
my hand, refract

my heart
shallow-hooked in sand

red folds sharp
on approach

through brittle chambers
an eel slip –

once is enough.
with the levante wind
we turn for home.


All Other Lands Are Cyclones

concrete bus-stop in the snow.
inside,
a ribbon, fluttering.
a hand.

I came the long way
round to this.
took a long time

for the windows to be
just pictures, slabs of
a glowing blue
and a swallowing blue

for the wind to be a kind of a man, tall,
frenetic, dancing close to the walls
not letting go between tunes
and somewhere else, a wife

who cries out
when you reach to touch
her beautiful diamantes
before she understands.

it took me a long time to be sleepy
although I was so tired.

under the hand
I’m very small.


Found Poem

axiomatic

eliminating
handling wastes


eliminating
inspection


eliminating
non-value
adding tasks


eliminating
temporary storage


enhancing
handling


making
process error-
proof


automating
wherever
possible


storing in
point of use


minimizing
movement


minimizing
transfer volume


modifying
layout


maximizing load
of each carrier


Isme Draft
isme

is what you do to m
i run
five sluburbs home

leave up

mys elf
in a diction
a tree veiny sky
scraped gardien angles
obliqued mi ca lines
lickd tulaminate frm
starryear to
el bown
toe

gone flat
towen home

hewait ill animate
if you j
isme

just ism e

out ni
beg in

---

not from the rosie series


Step Six

oh atom ant
what you nibbled apart

now celestial – mm, ( ( ( ( ( (
a floating alignment