Rudolfo Carrillo

Sonnet 52

The instrumentality of hands born
through weighty procedure in this,
the realm of agriculture - demonstrated
through acts of grasping and reaching:

Cranes and swallows do not have to be
coaxed from their sky, the sound of wings
disturbs the moon as it surprises stones.

Viewed as mechanical contrivances,
under the influence of telescopes or
encyclopedias, arms resemble watery
devices abandoned in the desert.

Nearby, tin cans mingle with a variety
of night-blooming flowers; a snake
crawls blithely, willfully across the sand.

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Sonnet 51

While I dream of Saturn, or how
the furthest stars resemble hot white flowers,
you went out into the world covered in sonic
drapery; the luxurious and rumbling paint of
summer smeared lovingly across the sky.

Who convinced us all of of victory, carried the Aegis
as if it were some rare implement of cultivation,
a means of transmitting seeds or sentences formed
from the abundance of flowers, the permanence
of the forests, oceans conquered with blue precision.

Water should be gathered up.
The rain is early. Its profusion
makes the days seem to go on
and on like photographs, forever.

                    For Michael Henningsen

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