a lamp

john martone
ocean / samuddo
2015

redbuds flower
outside a chapels
blue windows

throw

those windows open

where

on earth

you step outside

where its quiet

you come inside

where its still

a stone flower basket empty under bare oaks

if you dare

leave that orchid outside overnight

fig tree

taken in from the cold

leans at a window

pines

trilliums ferns
they condemn his house

10

his house
a wooden
fish

11

all these years

roof hasnt leaked

12

nightfall
try to
catch up

13

as long as cleaning this toilet takes

14

a birthday & now midnight

15

no helping it

youll die
in a dirty house

16

picking bagworms

his shape
on a step ladder

17

bodys

a lamp

18

fool drops

clay flower pots

one doesnt shatter

19

his gardens
white ashes

20

tilling your garden

finding the weeder
lost last summer

21

a shame
to plow
violets

22

old clothes

spreading mulch

23

after digging his garden

drinks from his cracked
water glass

24

chicken wire
scratches you
bloody

25

when you stand right here

in your yard
a smell of death

26

garden

gloves cant

27

weeds

in rags

28

twig

rikyus
tea scoop

29

clouds sail by
above his
shovel

30

a mourning dove after that dream

31

his house

gutted
lilacs remain

33

for shame

theyve cut a new trail

34

tractor ruts
right past jack
in his pulpit

35

bluebells
in full
silence

36

upright
the blue
phlox

37

columbine

antennas listen
for alien life

38

a lake

ripples
redbud

39

waterfall

sawdust pours
from the termite tree

40

wind off lake

a pebble
in your shoe

41

walking

the length of it
nothing washed-up

42

these are

light green
shoots of

43

turns

to sun

44

a deers

bedding place
the mahayana

45

a dream

cant tell
which ways north

47

escape artist
not this
body

48

play

yourself
out

49

drown
in this
wind

50

planets edge
a prairie road

51

clouds sail across

a prairie road
nothing is endless

52

his whistle
& his life
jacket

53

a torn sheet of paper a line of breaking waves

54