All Effect

For this reason hail in June

and how we read the season

jeremiad or excuse

to shelter in the park gazebo

as white granular ciphers

written hectic and sky-bitten

over the well-mannered lawn

spell birdsong despite it all

or because of it perhaps

grackles crowd lower boughs

keen and scold the wintry

missiles with shrill flushing

whistles that overbrim

loosening like unpent steam

from the tea kettle’s grip

singing for this reason

your loose shoulder strap

a little falls a little falls

what your freckled shoulder means

on the tip of my tongue.

“All Effect” appeared in Rhumb Lines (Sutton Hoo Press, 2002).