Some Weather

Among the things
(though these are not things)
I did to preempt the storm were:
upturn, stow, disconnect,
shut down, shutter, shut.

But, while the house sulked,
the sky scolded
and I observed an hour’s breadth,
the storm tossed out its tinsmith verbs
somewhat to the west.

The Penknife

One slip and the tip
of my forefinger slits
inch-wide, clean-brimmed
so a flap of skin
is mackerel-gilled,
ripped white to the rim
like the single thread
that pulls open a wave
to a whittle of pulse,
a spate of blood and salt.

Desire

I would like
to feel indifferent
as a plinth or tabletop
of pure Carrara marble
that has all its darkness
corralled in veins
that hold themselves
instinctively intact.

VONA GROARKE 's US publications include Flight and Earlier Poems (2004) and Juniper Street (2006), both from Wake Forest University Press.