Anthony Deaton

All Effect

For this reason hail in June

and how we read the season

 

jeremiad or excuse

to shelter in the park gazebo

 

as white granular ciphers

written hectic and sky-bitten

 

over the well-mannered lawn

spell birdsong despite it all

 

or because of it perhaps

grackles crowd lower boughs

 

keen and scold the wintry

missiles with shrill flushing

 

whistles that overbrim

loosening like unpent steam

 

from the tea kettle’s grip

singing for this reason

 

your loose shoulder strap

a little falls a little falls

 

what your freckled shoulder means

on the tip of my tongue.

 

 

 


“All Effect” appeared in Rhumb Lines (Sutton Hoo Press, 2002).