Could Not Speak
Could not speak but only arrange
Made tiles in a tile factory, painted on them
Nine different scenes: trees on cliffs, vineyards, estates
Permanent, unreachable under the glaze
Could not speak but worked at a table with others
Signed the clients' names
Breathed clay, clay wash on my fingernails
In faIL made creche figures, painted them
Simplified fo lds of the swaddling
Two dots for eyes, lips one red stroke
God after God after God
Could not speak but arranged them in lines
Cut off the excess, smashed the defective
Mixed paint, fed the oven, baked and made them
Flat scenes, little men, little anima ls
In lines as if they were an army marching
Sold at the fair: cut off and wrapped up
Hung on walls or set out at holidays
Stiff, bone-light, caught in sheen
Could not speak but was everywhere
Maker of what is made
ROBERT BLY
The Mink and Henry James
The mink with his black tip on the lookout for mice
Shamed the snow-washed cornfields with his whiteness.
His leap in the snow taught us to take what we wanted.
