Dara Wier is the author of Voyages in English (Carnegie-Mellon, 2000). Some Childhood Scene As if somebody squared gravity for a while little brown goat couldn't get its cart to start Or tightened all of the screws and bolts a little a blue closed door weighed more than the moon More than they'd ever been tightened until now it was impossible to rock the rockers Something shrunk everyone's shirts there were planets deep inside their pockets As if somebody squared sleep and fed it all around and this is where they opened their mouths As if somebody took the wind away and told it to stay gone and nobody saw the fire reflected in a window More than anything it was how they went their separate ways they left in silence, saying nothing Something shellacked them, their eyes were glazed & seldom As if somebody squared torpor and dipped them in it if ever a potion of stupor, a drop of paregoric As if distilled fog came to fill in all the cracks and a long red barge paused to take on passing thoughts As if somebody squared vacancy & lit it with a torch & each one had swallowed too many knock out drops As if something bruised everything that used to move Words Dissolving in a Cup on a Bedside Stand A dread of comets once showed good sense, Fear of saints, priests and popes rests On rock-solid evidence and one's reluctance To be near tyrants & mobs is understandable, Likewise bullets, poison, especially poisoned Oysters, and lightning, and in some circumstances, Gold, wind, wood, cellophane, matches & ice. Anyone in her right mind can tell when a mirror Is a dangerous thing. Each additional mirror Ups the ante. It's astonishing how the force of gravity dishes itself out in almost all of The right places. So rare to overhear-look, There's not enough gravity in the vicinity of That antelope, and oh, Dear Mr. Schmidt could Certainly stand a smattering bit more of a good Dose of gravity, too much gravity in the water This morning, darling, a bit overdone, wouldn't You say, that gravity by Miss Mason's tomb, And still, barophobia toils everlastingly In our textbooks. Sometimes "scare quotes" are All that's needed to get a good case of the shivers Started. Fear of trembling arrives like a wave Of camels projected through the rings of Saturn. A thousand hues are searching for your eyes, Fear of flowers, mice, flutes, goats, music & String, fear of seashells and mimes, fear of Phobophobia. Suppose you're standing on a Streetcorner near a bridge in a high open space Watching shadows of clouds dim a vastness of Staccato stars . . . Hush I think the gods were kinder then When one of us had been harmed or Torn one of them would look upon us With pity and turn us into something New, maybe a catalpa's anther or the Iridescence inside a wild trout's scale. Maybe a spider or a nightingale, A good wrench or a fine lathe, The headlights of a fast car Sometimes a god would come along Who couldn't stand to see us shed Even one tear. Thus we have endless Stars. Who gave the undertaker the Big prize for his parenting advice? An Emblematic Cap Willow to willow, weed to weed, Petal to petal, stick to stick, A to A, key to key, back to back, Pillow to pillow, paw to paw, Pencil to pencil, clip to clip, Stack to stack, slice to slice, Swallow to swallow, turn to turn, Step to step, kiss to kiss, Narrow to narrow, open to open, Chemise to chemise, hand to hand, Nipple to nipple, drop to drop, Now to now, then to then, Night to night, sleep to sleep, Spring to spring, fall to fall.