IRONING FIVE SHIRTS

by Michael Basinski

1

If I write it down
it will be
write it dawn
wrong
dumb shit
really how
the wring slides
the hot iron
crushes
the wrinkles in her shirt
in an act of war
in an act of love 

2

which is mist
spell leaves
all of thee are buttons
open the forest

3

poetry is silly
water
the rain is a forest
of gunshots
to put my face
into the iron
so my heart may own
an arrow through it

4

an isolation
I take off my shirt
the sea is near
this is the word of
no horizons
I drop it in a dictionary
candy sacks
Halloween night
in the sexual silence
the harvest forest
of the Garden of Eden
no one hears another tree
The Fall
no two people have
the same language
pretty trick
the stress
trees
threat
treat
dress
undress

5

this is an island.
it is haunted.
strange and beautiful.
creatures.
two people living.
in love.
they are pouring.
rain for each other.
they are not hands.
their hands.
held.
they are not pieces.
of fruit.
or toothbrushes.
they are in a different.
rooms with one window.
and Her eyes.
double pupils in one eye.
the other the.
silhouette of night.
She sees.
I am an alien.
an iron in the window.
inside.
there is a bird.
nest in which.
I am a discorded thread.
blowing in the whispers.
or songs hummed while washing.
"Why do you get.
so bent.
out of shape.
over the littlest.
things."
see my eyes are eggs.
beneath the pines is a picnic.
in her grotto.
a bath.
she is washing.
the breasts.
never see.
her seven dogs ripe him.
to pieces of.
words he is screaming.
and he is a pile.
of bones.
a disturbed city.
which wakes each day.
and returns to work.
long, senseless hours.
he appears to be.
wearing a neatly pressed shirt.
that's an Arrow.
isn't it.