print previewback CELESTE LIPKES
ne·pen·thes
1. n. a drug mentioned by Homer that lets one forget sorrow; an antidepressant.
2. n. a genus of carnivorous plants
monkey cuplizard drowner
spider eaterpoison pitcher
nectared tempterlidded killer
bring the birds back to their maker
wing shell bone eye tail
feather webbing spinner stinger
little remnants of loss
no one remembers
~
In a dream
I gathered shells
while you surfed
sand sucking my heels
I watched your body disappear
the wave like a blue eye closing
~
an abbreviated list of things that cannot be unseen:
sparrows crowding the sill
blood on the patio
a glass tipping
my breasts
the apricot moon
your hands trembling
~
Half-full at the approach of night,
Lamarck writes, the plant is an urn
into which a bug flies, slipping
from air into syrup,
whole days
when you can’t get out of bed.
Thickness pins your limbs,
props your eyes open. What I wish
for you always: short night
into morning.
I stand at the lip
looking in, until the insect stops struggling.
~
the rim of the sea wall
almost complete
the tide at Long Beach
tempered by concrete and rock
no more waves
to drown or surf in
there are side effects
you say to everything
~
wine-dark sea
was the phrase
we were trying
to recall
the evening
we snuck
into the museum
and stood before
the glass case
of rare butterflies
almost touching
~
The first encounter was a miracle.
Past ills were forgotten
as the men watched the pitcher’s
opening lid—an eye unafraid—
let everything in. 
cam·pa·nol·o·gy
ne·pen·thes
Snail