"In her dream somewhere near Fresno, things are different.."
 

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Ms. Lynch

Kathleen Lynch
 

Serious Weather

This time you say: Look how wet
the world is. Roofs are stepping stones
in brown ponds. Hang paintings
higher in the museum. Keep
your galoshes by the door. Or don’t

say anything. Water goes
on flowing. On every channel
they count how many days now
tell about their lives
just sunk. Just washed away.
Everything. Everything. The same

as when the sky spreads its broad
blue sponge & takes it all back.
Whole families
of corn stalks crackle dry

pathetic tunes in blanched fields.
Lips of the lakes pull
back and back and back. Front
page states how long we’ve gone on
like this. You say: Look how dry
the world is. You say
Oh when will this ever end? 
 

Non-Cinematic Departure

Actually she leaves on a Greyhound.
Actually no one comes to stop her.
The children cry and pee.
One gets gum stuck in his hair.
His brother gets diarrhea
while they wait between buses.
Everyone hot and wretched.
The bus has bad breath. Exit ramps
blur by. The boys kick seat backs
and each other. Finally they slump
tangled in exhaustion. She dozes.
In her dream somewhere near Fresno
things are different: She’s in a dining car.
The children sleep sweetly in their berths.
Two daisies tremble in the vase by the window.
Tea is steeping in a fat white pot when he enters.
It is a wordless exchange. He sees everything
in her face. He understands why she must leave.
Never raises a hand. You can tell by his eyes
he forgives her. Wheels turn rhythmically.
She's rocked deeper asleep, then jostled
awake. Every scene the window offers
it takes away.