Great Wealth

Amie Zimmerman

 

on the table lies
the street, and even the street does not know itself
in thinking to protect
what has happened is I’ve collected things

when the better of me
folds in soft embrace around palm oil, oil, oil
I haven’t enough money to behave well
the flood comes

a map of adrenals
standing or shaking or doing both
standing or shaking or doing both in despair and in hate
I’m never going to do anything about it, we both know this

tilted table
everything falls off, I place what is most valuable
falls off, I place again what is most valuable more firmly
this time, more firmly valuable

shaky birth
what came after weighed as much, the blood had to
to spare you this
they couldn’t sew me, they couldn’t, not yet

the screen is filled with a map
I keep pretending I don’t know why
I am afraid
the source of it all, one bridge over water, the water on fire

on one side of the river
a city lives, the city lives on the other side with the grackle
the cottontail, the rattlesnake
each a foot in the mouth of the other

a screen of shaky aspen
waiting in the suddenness of the abundant brown river
cream foam and flapping cloth
I don’t say it enough—I’m proud of you

family packed onto a map
in the street I am the coyote, in the street, the cottontail
the dream of abundance
entering in surrender, entering with the surrender of wealth

say it out loud
alone, I am alone
being unworthy drives a person to drink
my foot in your mouth, yours in mine

common cloth on a table
glasses, a carcass, shiny mouths full of tranquilizers and marrow
shiny marrow
source of cancer, cure for cancer, light of abundance

in miscarriage, in afterbirth
to seek the range of the body’s ability to carry normalcy
I’m leaving you
I may not return

brother, brother
three-legged stool, floating in the flood that came early
my shaky mouth
stilled under brown abundance, grace-filled
fortunate

 
 

Amie Zimmerman lives in Portland, Ore. Her work has recently been published, or is forthcoming, in Sixth Finch, West Branch, Seneca Review, DIAGRAM, the tiny, and Paperbag, among others. She has two chapbooks, “Oyster” (REALITY BEACH) and “Compliance” (Essay Press), and is an editor for YesYes Books.