Joseph Massey
Names
and what remains of them. Night,
here, coheres;
and the mind unsettles in.
Other Increments
Winter’s arrhythmic timbre
dislocates landscape, con-
jures robins where frost
and mud would be.
This supposed January.
No rain to fail to say
the hours through: the din,
the dumbshow, the light
off-kilter and hollowing.
How everyday ready-mades
anchor the real. Acacia
in bloom—migraine-yellow—
encroaches the window
while sun divides
the room. Lines of dust
suspended in dust. Turn.
Find tide’s out: black
plane beneath water’s
holographic gray.
Cloud-rifts rove.
Three bees drone
around the sill
as if to carve their form
from warped wood.
Joseph Massey is the author of Areas of Fog (Shearsman Books, 2009) and At the Point (Shearsman Books, 2011), as well as numerous chapbooks. He lives on the North Coast of California.