JANET BOWDAN'S poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, Chicago Review, Denver Quarterly, The Missouri Review and Tinfish. She teaches at Western New England College in Springfield, Massachusetts. writing (on the walls) As if I could see that far into the past could on an overcast day the sky full of omens walk along looking at something else, window displays, hear its recognition. horizon gaze open-focuses, contracts to close-up you could almost touch minor characters lilliputian from a distance now brobdingnags as they turn major, the key's minor, when the walls close in you get out, go for a walk. cracks not in the retaining wall, not the one required to hold the house up just a sort of curtain wall, a cosmetic, a facade. Back then the writing was on the wall and now the wall's blank, a shell, the kind of blank that if you shot, you wouldn't hurt me, just a powder burn, a scar, unless we were too close. hear the shot echoing in the past, someone's shot a video, the turning again: which story's etched into the wall with light? who read it, who looks at the whole story, who turns to look at something else, into the sky for omens, demanding signs, a boy falling out of the sky, we are too close: you can't stop watching, I can't look. Back to the window displays carefully dressed mannequins, faces painted in the reflection of the sky, the story of giants in miniature, you watching. the angle of incidence. ice 2 (on) the question is what is being kept on reserve, what are my reserves you could say if you had any curiosity about me     and I will just say I am intensely curious about you     vice versa would only be polite     but I'm sure you have your own life you have to get on with     your intimate concerns. And now back to me say that there is a part of me not used, utilized, well what part is that? clearly it's not the part that works, all working parts in order, working non-stop it feels like, the ever-increasing speed of the conveyor belt, the treadmill, the grindstone the nose is to: do these images suggest a wearing down or out to you? do you think I have, indeed, gotten smaller? of course to answer that you have to have paid attention before. it's all right, try this: does water expand or contract when it turns to ice? A simple experiment will provide the solution. Put a full glass of water into your freezer and leave it overnight or for several years before checking on the results. It might help to mark the level of water on the glass with a wax pencil, in case you are likely to forget where it was.