Two Poems by Emily Bludworth de Barrios
Instruction Manual
The woman writes the poem, and the poem disappoints
The promise of wisdom pulses more powerfully than wisdom
The idea of wisdom pulses like the color red
Wisdom dressed up in words breaks into feathers
Sometimes I’d like an instruction manual for humans on Earth
Welcome to Earth, it could say
Wise words, it could say Mots justes, impossible to adhere to
(Wanting a holy text as simple as an inspirational pillow: dance laugh love)
The woman writes the poem, and the poem disappears
Like humans, into the earth, out of anyone’s mind
Wall of Time
I fireplace memories of autumn sending them down the block like sweet woodsmoke and the
atmosphere of a familiar season
Fall smokes its way into the present
A tree, a torch, improbable, shocking, what was green is yellow as a flame, orange as immolation
(A tree that was green is now a cone of yellow-orange leaves, battered and glowing)
The season immolates Time immolates Temperature Climate torches itself
What torches like fall The temperature greens like early summer Late spring
Winter summers all season We season the heat with woodsmoke from our fireplaces
(Or firesmoke from the fires)
A miniature temporary dip in temperature sips the green from the leaves
Therefore the leaves changed as if autumn arrived
The neighbors burn a fire in their fireplace as if the air were not hot
The climate memories like a person at the end of their life
Therefore I winter in a thin skirt and short sleeves
Pin my words to the wall of time: “We were here”
Emily Bludworth de Barrios is a poet whose books and chapbooks include Women, Money, Children, Ghosts (Sixth Finch 2016), Splendor (HNGMN 2015), and Extraordinary Power (Factory Hollow Press 2014). Recent work can be read in Iterant, Electric Literature, Poetry Daily, B O D Y, and Sixth Finch. More information can be found at www.emilybludworthdebarrios.com.
