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NATHAN SHIPLEY


IN THE INTEREST OF TIME

In the interest of time
the unseen hands
                            rubbing together
I step over myself
in a dream made of leaves

                                            Tonight
the weather                     soft rain
    putting its fall on edges

city lights organized in the distance
& the kettle heavy like a wall

Yesterday they found more stone age lovers

              holding in a cave buried
        ancient spooning death
naked                 the past tense

because I felt like talking to you

        skeleton love     sudden response
    sheets of promise between petals
dusts     us in the kitchen

            the vat                     gathering
    floor of text
cat hair     tree bark     spilled wine

        you w the mold & deckle      splash!
& all the pulp    the towels under our knees
I love you

sorry to have not listened sooner
dripping down the sides
so many things wrong in the world
        but we were already near the end

the flecked paper     the frayed paper
    asleep    putting their insides down
        as they seem to have

A dream     (the ink smudges)
inside the apartment

The rain stops among the roofs
some long process
    one of many possibilities

under the sky
            sewn to a spine

        they were before this reeds
where reeds grow         & grew back
how they grow now

        the declining air
the killing raids     the closing world
our breath prepares once more
            to increase

                        the bones deepen under their weight
                        the shaking pages

––––

Nathan Shipley is a poet and artist in San Luis Obispo, CA. He works at Insert Press and also runs SUDS, an audiozine. His poems have appeared recently in Recenter Press Journal.