Jennifer Compton: Two Poems

the moment, taken

harkening clouds

storming over

our weatherboard house

rolled me tumbledown

with their driven, indifferent

distance

their imperative

going somewhere else

summoned, bidden

then that once, i was waylaid

by a green lure

a staircase

up into a wilderness

within which

each element touched

i sat on a lower step

knees to my chin

nodded, keened

(when i got to school

i told a lie

with eyes averted)

Jennifer Compton

plot

each grain slips off each grain

how can i make a garden out of this?

recalcitrant and unrepentant

sullen earth

i need shit, i need worms, and long years

digging in, digging in

until the sudden rain does not glance away

with hurried, scornful panache

like someone not prepared to wait

for a minute, but off

what will grow in such a plot?

nothing much, yet

                    Jennifer Compton