hopeless roof

john martone

samuddo / ocean 2013

hopeless roof copyright 2013 john martone samuddo / ocean johnmartone@gmail.com isbn 978-1-304-30467-4

hopeless roof

mcm

gamma the garden gets away from him geologic time vindauga or wind-eye hopeless roof clone teasel box turtle (2013) refuge gottfried zinn

gamma

light fills your handwritings loops light fills your body

the retinas a sail

infrared even as you lie there sleeping

a frequency at which the body is see-thru

they hammer together a wooden stairs you read about photons

10

shouting vulgarities a roofer stands in the light

its weeding or roofing these days & both

11

photons the pea flowers whiteness

photons you pick pea pods

12

the winds direction today all those photons

in a photon in the light more light

13

wouldnt mind just being photons

gamma rays right thru mirror

14

a gamma ray burst lights up all you cant see this

your body this room this room full of light

15

radish plants shot to seed overnight you climb the roof

16

the garden gets away from him

mandala your yellow wall its the age of sunflowers

18

curcubit & wild grapes entangle

shoulder to shoulder lettuce

19

peace of mind one step back all along

the garden gets away from him

20

corn tassels eyeglass stems

rabbits flee thru square stemmed peppermint

21

the wire fence no help for small rabbits

you lay down your pen & cut more bean poles

22

pistils & stamens turn human daylily salad

day lilies now & any day morning glories

23

geologic time

summer solstice theres also a chainsaw

24

summer solstice no less cutting back rhododendron

rhododendron roots all the way back to the 1950s

25

touch the earth & you grow roots rhododendron

under rhododendrons your own limbs neither thicker nor thinner

26

legs folded rhododendron under rhododendron

rhododendrons & mother those mountains

27

glacial moraine rhododendrons & people age

summer solstice no less bundling bushwood

28

time comes no more up & down cellar stairs

white paint on a cellar wall summer solstice

29

three lifetimes a broken pick-handle their genome

you dig in glacial moraine begonias go back to the pliocene

30

planting impatiens on new guinea they have 500 tongues

planting impatiens in 6 months coming to nothing

31

after the graveyard sailboats tacking you keep to this road

head stones sail boats my shapes

32

from her grave to the airport one hour

in soil-caked shoes you wait for a flight

33

now theyre gone queen annes lace touches the roof-line

seashell picture his room

34

 ca. 1953 bare feet on beach her little dance the holocene

35

vindauga or wind-eye

summer he tears out old windows

36

not too old pulling out such windows

you tear out windows from inside the house

37

wearing gloves pulling glass from sash everything hovers

a window shatters onto flowering mint

38

second skin window-glass dust you sparkle at last

1924 sash-stops pulley ropes & the lost counter weights

39

those torn-out windows your problem

you put in new windows for strangers

40

one last look the void that holds a new window

wasps abound around a new window

41

a new window now you can sleep here

precise as telescopes double-hung windows

42

each double-hung window a map of the prairie

his new window hummingbird rests on a coneflower

43

windows all around youre still inside

44

hopeless roof

standing on roof feeling at sea

46

cant find where roofs leak starts so tear it all off

old roof mother was just forty

47

old roof today no roof

shingles tar & tar paper all to cover a wood knot

48

termite-dust imagine that

galvanized roofing nails that boyhood!

49

afterwards look for roofing nails in the hydrangea

tar paper unrolls like any protein

50

you unroll tarpaper & stand confused

tarpaper guidelines for cursive!

51

roof-flashing flashing

roof-tar homi nid behold this cabbage white

52

65 million years your skin roof tar

roof tar sky so blue

53

roof tar who were you?

tarring the roof a fig tree down there has one fruit

54

roof tar cant draw fine lines

daddy long-legs steps around roof tar

55

shingle selvage always hidden

ten thousand roofing nails look around

56

tarring the roof you watch the planes fly seaward

light headed hot work heart flutters its such a roof

57

paint thinner to clean up after tarring a roof my dear van gogh

moon above hopeless roof dream or no

58

split rail fence outlasting their roof

summer a split-rail fence namely home

59

flutter ing are you heart little bird lost in me flying thru this light

60

clone

fifteen clay pots same jade plant each

62

my fifteen jade plants bend like my sunflowers

with two arms youre a jade plant

63

arthritic thumbs the jade plants are always green

a jade plants thumbs close the eyes of countless dead

64

having no roots the jade plant is human

hearing them nail a roof you study this jade plant

65

being hopeless turning into a jade plant

van goghs ear youre shaping a jade plant

66

in this whole house only a jade plants perfect

wherever it is jade plants the center

67

jade plant root of my tongue

making myself very small under a jade plant

68

which pronoun to use jade plant

jade plant uvula hope for this human

69

windy you hear a jade plant

my thousand-armed quan am a jade plant

70

theres only one season succulent jade plant

galaxies around the house those jade plants

71

you never see this jade plant flower

72

teasel

teasel summers gearbox

74

grain elevators overshadow us teasel

butterfly perches on a teasel spine

75

teasel nothings not a spine

pincushion & pins the same teasel

76

lonely every compass points a teasel bract

all those spines but teasel stems hollow

77

hollow stem midsummer teasel that thirst

egg-shape teasel tops are egg-shape

78

teasel time cb antennas on pickup trucks

cutting teasel for home & cockleburs cling to my boots

79

must have been butterflies before you were teasel

pulling out a delicate thorn teasel flower

80

box turtle (2013)

rotting leaves become you box turtle

82

your bedroom my bedroom box turtle

never see your shells pattern box turtle

83

falling behind your whole life box turtle

box turtle (but no-shell me)

84

always take you for the same box turtle

box turtle in all the world theres just one human

85

box turtle my lantern

didnt ask to be a box turtle

86

box turtle filling up all that space

eyelids too delicate box turtles

87

box turtle edge of this ravine

inside out all a dream box turtle

88

box turtle people want a story

box turtle in your previous life a frog

89

carapace others have wing feathers

box turtle molecules folding up

90

just one mind turtle shell spider web

the softest skin scales too box turtle

91

if theres no truth in telepathy box turtle

box turtle & hes in his mud boots

92

refuge

even these defective eyes pure joy cumulus

94

juniper tree under cumulus his bare face

cumulus all those eyeglass lenses

95

just one tree above the corn juniper cumulus

you prune the juniper & a cumulus changes

96

juniper branches a cumulus reaches out

juniper tree rooting yourself in a cumulus

97

imagine that caves in a cumulus refuge

cumulus sky unreachable braille

98

the frog & lake in one cumulus

night falls too in a cumulus in a juniper

99

juniper branches glass vase juniper roots clay pot that cumulus

this infinite night a cumulus

100

cumulus a path that no one takes

101

gottfried zinn

cause & effect forgot youd planted zinnias

102

when everything else goes wild your symmetry zinnia

just-so zinnia petals

103

60 years to grow this zinnia

opposite leaves hairy stem whod guess zinnia

104

bald fools lotus zinnia

paint-specked zinnia come home

105

fresh water in this vase one zinnia

106

To purchase a print copy of this book, click on the cover image.