5 June 2006 | Vol. 6, No. 2

Left, No Arrow

by REBECCA GIVENS

Not always another chance is coming. Not

if you are lit on fire and keep the sad news

to yourself. If nothing works. Deep down

the drains hover and clog themselves. Dogs

cluster around the windowpanes. Zinnias,

pansies, always something that "must needs

go." Down the stairs, into the basement kept

by dust motes and ravenous squirrels. A jungle

down there, a really impossible place. Though

you could say "It's exciting" and take a look,

make an effort to know the corners. Cut up

the baby, saw up the pretty axe. It's hell

you know, with Orpheus who needs his mother.

He got in a car accident, interrupted this poem,

but what can anyone say about that? Accidents

happen. I said go to the emergency room,

but he says no, his head is fine.