matrix

by KARLENE HARVEY

Wringing out the rattle
of words that hook ears
hanging from her head
a misdirected fax, a broken pencil
the bus gritty with soiled
escapes she climbed aboard
in sticky polyester and
a tiny thimble rocked
between her fingers
while she waited for the insides
of the glass to freeze over.

One stop till last she
Crumbled sugar cubes while
Chewing room-temperature
French fries and waiting
Another hour before heading
To the elderly bar where cowboys
Soaked pints and warbled
Cmon nows and where you froms

Rinsing her blouse in the
hotel room sink it hung from
the shower rod like a ghost
dripping transparent
upon linoleum that curled softly
as a dog-eared paperback.

She hummed herself to sleep
As flickered thoughts broke
Socket breakers and short circuits
behind eyelids
Sudden and seizure
A gasp of a girl
smothered in water.

Ditched the shirt the next morning
Bought discount denim, crayon blue
And set off along the shoulder
Near the woods and so she thought to herself:

Maybe I’ll reach the house.
where my dad grew up
near the powerlines, in the mountains
off the rez, snug by the river
teach myself how to hunt rabbits
someone told me once you would starve
if all you ate were rabbits
I told them, yeah.
and I can’t even run that fast.