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Macaroni & Cheese

One day you may be asked, “How

was it that God brought forth

being

out of nothing?” Then, “Is

there no difference between them—

nothing, and being?” Outside

a strange slow snow, and a big

black bird hunched

over something in the road. The sky

will be a pale

reflection of itself,

like a woman making dreamy circles

at the center of a dish with a cloth.

Love. Hunger. Other alchemies.

You may be asked, “What

are my eyes made of? Can

Santa’s reindeer be burned by fire? In

heaven, does Jesus eat?”

In the oven, something breathing. Rising. Melting.

Shifting

shape and sweetening

in the heat. Now

you can see that the bird in the street

is wrestling something bloody

out of a carcass, trying

to expose its heart. You

put the dish down beside the cloth, and say,

“Darling, I don’t know.”

from Gardening in the DarkFind it in the library

Copyright © 2004 Laura Kasischke
Used with the permission of The Permissions Company, Inc.
on behalf of Copper Canyon Press.

Published in Laura Kasischke Poems

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Idaho Humanities Council, a State-based program of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this (publication, website, exhibit, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the Idaho Humanities Council or the National Endowment for the Humanities.