The Gray House
BY MARTHA COLLINS
took you but brought me brought
to this house this room in this gray
house that is more than house that is full
is filled with you no that is empty
with you that is filled with the empty
of you is this the house the empty
you came to before it took you away
you came to this room in this gray
house where I live in this room where
I think I have found the you you came
to before house where you’ve brought
me where I am full of empty with you
Datebook
BY MARTHA COLLINS
from his last months
passport application
stop paper / hold mail
take daffodils to M
new heels for good shoes
M this weekend
clean house
passport should arrive
get jacket pocket fixed
take daffodils
fix bird feeder post
M this weekend
clean house
2nd check for trip
water garden
take roses
leave key on barn shelf
cancel passport
cancel roses
cancel house
Inscription for a Pool
BY MARTHA COLLINS
There it is you always again
Here it is not you but the idea (of)
Occupied space in my mind
Or blue film over blue
And there what is what were (we)
Here on the occupied page (where)
Wrote could for cloud read light
showers and opened my eyes (to)
Were written into that pool as if
by hand our own as if (we)
Here on the page lacunae as text
Absence not idea There you are