Instructional Poem

Linen


Wait for a sunny day.
With a large sharp knife cut out a piece of the sky
and use it as a tablecloth.

Watch clouds and Venus
pass beneath your cereal bowl each morning.

Watch the tablecloth with friends one night
with the lights out
and together see falling stars,
the glint of a full moon in each other’s eyes.

If a beloved old pet dies,
wrap the body in the sky tablecloth and
bury them together in your garden.

Plant sunflowers here.


July 1991