Rae Armantrout

Theory of Everything

It both hurtles
and fidgets,

otherwise
it's empty space?

*

A wide swath
of baby talk--

blue
and feathery green,
I insisted,

swinging up,

but Mother
was no longer playing.

*

Everything that stays
once meaning has cleared out

is true?

*

Tomorrow
the sun eats the earth,

now
so many leaves are new,

not asking
to be recognized.

Joseph Massey

Back Yard

Lit amber by
back door light

a skunk prowls
bramble's edge

--blackberry vines
and dandelions

bunched alongside
the garage--

into alley's black
spilling moths.