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Tell it Slant
Have to sail at an angle,
never directly into the wind --
other things too --
can't look right at the sun,
the world, only visible
in the light that falls around it;
and in books as well,
the best drawn characters most often
evolve through indirection:
a lipstick smear on a collar,
contents of a bedroom drawer;
I imagine a single
two by twelve board
I need to lean against a barn --
it won't even stand unless
I place it at an angle.
I don't know how many other
things like this are true,
but I like trying
to see her words --
the tall right triangle the barn
and board create together,
the purple tufts of clover
slightly darker in the grass.