Secret Life with Squirrel
Erin Lambert
[Total Pages: 2]
Secret Life Page 1

1.

Everywhere

I feel my soul's fractures: eyeless
bird in gutter, small boy dragged through shop
by collar, blown lights down lifeless street.

But I can never be King
of Pain, so I recite daily: "You, whom I could not
    save,
listen to me," until I hear
that entire poem move through my mind
thoughtless.

Some days I have recalled while walking: "it
    matters

that autumn is grafted into autumn
it matters that autumn is"

I felt such words would cloak my misery
from this shared one which surrounds me
that I wanted to keep those two apart
lest they mate. Still, I wondered: Why not
paint all ceilings the underside of leaf?
That dull pea that stains the light of liars?

We have all been made to stare at floors
with the persistent gaze of canisters sealed in
    cellar.