Queen Anne’s Lace
or Lady’s Slipper.
Mary as a tattoo,
as a spider.
Mary as a leopard,
as a field of grasses.
Mary as the grey and blue
hills in the distance
and the mists above them.
Mary as a constellation,
as the space between.
Mary as the earthquake,
as the forest fire and the tree.
As the birds singed in flight.
The abrupt departure,
the wild noise of defiance
as they fly.
Mary as the boards
from the trees
of this house, travelled. Mary
as travelling. Like burs on the
fox or Mary as the fox. As
hooked spines.