"After the Wake: For Ed Dorn"

After the Wake

(for Ed Dorn)



Some things I don't confess
to know. How a dead man
gets up out of bed, the Blue Bonnets
of Texas all over his gown, how stark
the room he wakes from, and summons you
to talk. I forgot what he said.
He did look dead, though later
said he was just resting. The rest
was trees, some kind of Ash; I aspire
to know them, what landscape was this,
like a neutron explosion--nothing left but the leaves,
nothing standing, no stone that wasn't formed
by the sea. No corners. Smashed.



c Lorna Dee Cervantes

Originally published in Square One