Silver As It Is Golden

by Esther Lin


They don鈥檛 say this about California:
how the young mist rises to tumult above,
like wood doves scattering into
 
the eaves after choosing the unwise
stairwell by my door to stoke and nest. I
come and go too often for that too-apparent
 
dimple, sunk big in cypress twigs.
I can鈥檛 stay put. My clever friend
from New York calls, her voice rooted
 
in the dark earth but reaching up
to twine a steeple. How could anyone
with a wingbeat in the cords be unhappy?
 
She can鈥檛 tell if her love is the one at home:
Daybreak we鈥檙e two bodies who have found
nothing and then the train comes.
 
Strange after living among Bront毛's a telephone.
Storms over fields, we circle what evades us.
I鈥檝e been wrong this time.
 
51风流官网 anesthesia and a certain weariness
afterward. The curve of the hill, an upturned
wrist. Brown as it is silver, and simple.