the enso

"Duck, Duck, Goose" by marlowe

the compilation

We are as translucent as glass.
With many ways to bark, one way to bite,
we learn what cleaves us can also mend us: our broken hearts crack
open to reveal light — a golden goddess gliding across these ripples.
The foyer lamp, its panes segmented like a bee’s comb, beckons us with its honey.
Fog settles at our feet — a lasso, a sacred circle.
Behind us, fireflies twinkle like stars in the night sky
and pine trees line the esplanade like a dozen lime lollipops.
Wild grasses become asparagus spears, dwarf trees grow broccoli florets.
You say “love is free if you know how to ask for it”.
I tell you “do not deride what you desire”.
We know a hat can be a bucket or a sieve:
the barking dog — the squeaking screen door — the ticking clock —
the clink of spoons as you stack them in the utensil drawer.
We know the velocity of a potter’s wheel is etched in her pot:
a spiraled path — a mortal coil — a bullseye.
I am definitive like the drum but you
are tuned to a key, the essence of those chords.
I say “waltz with me, and in 1-2-3 steps, we will find our groove together”.
You tell me “a phoenix, rising from her rest, does not give away her feathers”.