It
was a place to walk, it was a p lace,
And we walked, birds fell at our feet,
Inexplicable manna,
The signs flew between trees
And shook the branches.
We trembled like the branches.
I held on to you, and you-
I think you flew between the trees,
My sign .
You could not call it wandering, what we did,
I think it was the place
That wandered in us,
We seemed so large.
Marjorie Welish
SMOOTH AND ROUGH
Convention favors the right hand
and always attaining the top and bottom line (the stems
rising farther than this), and that the main roads
have cursive intersections like script.
Placed above the blackboard
the row of cards was a model blackboard.
I remember thumbtacks sinking through,
and when I looked at the letters
I liked the warmth of "a" next to "A," "b" next to "B,"
daughter near mother, but I did not believe
in consistently smooth feature;
the handsome model is not credible, in movies
handsome lines should be said by ugly men.
