print previewback LISA RUSS SPAAR
Accidental
Broken mantle clock, squat turreted castle
kept for its hand-painted closet,
coiled beehive in gauzy umlaut of wings,
gilding pale as the heat the vagina gives off,
after—after what? An afterthought, now,
to change “vagina,” for modesty’s sake,
to “portal to this world.” Truth is, the key
signature of any day’s measure can be altered
of a wild sudden. How a deleted “i”
turns another word to “marred,” for instance.
Bond indifferent as a dish of untouched soaps.
Shaped like eggs, no less. What is it
floods our clothes in the ruby dusk
of our beginnings? Is it what’s inside the door
of the flawed clock, a fury of shadows
cast by nothing? Fluke or fate,
whatever happens or doesn’t happen,
the portal happened once. To make you,
you who were also an I. To make me,
the child you were. You what I will be. 
Accidental
Two Weeks
The Wind Wears a
Red Leaf