Hover or tap highlighted phrases to isolate related threads. Hover/tap "How else could" to restore the full poem.
In the study of drawing ancient knowledge
meets the frontiers of expression.
Each object broken down to its
component geometric shape
repeated oval lines of
eggs and pyramids of milk
make visible against bare walls
a simple understandable perspective.
How else could two men dressed
for trade stand with such confidence
dwarfed by the plain and lofty girders
arches and stark rectangles of their God's house?
Along the highway's curve
between the parking lot
and where a person needs to
travel by tomorrow morning
to clock in at work
in gasoline gray angels posted at the
walls and aisle space bathed in light
monumental pillars of canned vegetables,
preserved meat, pills, tubes of fungicide
the pencil knows but cannot capture
how a calculus predicts where wind
will drop a taco bell receipt pulled from the
trash can to the pavement
where it will rest until it's tracked
across a tile floor until it's mopped
away tomorrow morning from between
cut boxes, loaded pallets off the trucks.
The cashier counting turns distracted,
"Wait a second." Past the other walls of glass
dark birds find paths through shadows
in a sky that never knew straight lines.
And by the water toys on clearance
sparrows who have gotten in through
open doors or loading dock act
as they would where ever they could
hunt for food. A family maybe or
a strange flock who encountered
one another here by accident,
together now for safety.