Components

Do not try so hard
father
I can see the black beads
of sweat
 
sluggish at first
solidify
in your veins
I’m working cold
 
When I was five
I swear I could see
the wings rising
from your shoulder blades
 
***
 
How like a hive you are
father
busy bee
 
In the amber light
of an afternoon
swinging time and me
on your hip
 
How the days seemed
transparent then
And how each cell of you worked
and how you were a cluster of things
and how I clustered round you
busy bee
me
 
And how the warm honey
poured forth
 
***
 
A component suggests
a thing that fits
 
I am gathering
the bits of you up
 
They sit round me
And whisper
 
Here where all the parts
make a hole
 
***
 
Here the black thread
for the sewing
 
And here the bead black eyes
 
And here the needle point
making a black point
 
pointing back

And here the needle bone
also black
 
And here the whittling bone
blackened with use
 
And here the sharpening blade
 
And here the wishing bone
black as black can be
 
And here my lone black wish
 
***

Image: Lucy Quinn, Components, kiln cast and cold-worked lead crystal, 2015