They Will Sew the Blue Sail

taking stock | Laura Marris

a celery root

a spoon

a pear wrapped in green paper

but there are some grey areas

like when I kissed you and his face

entered my mind like a cry

they say kindness comes

from understanding its opposite—

your brothers locked you

in an air conditioner

but who taught me cruelty?

the hawk shifting foot to foot on his nest—no,

nobody can say

but I can say

blue flames begin to lick the newspaper

shredded in the enormous hearth

I prodded and fanned