History Lesson

Barbara Claire Freeman

Near the tower she nationalized

A color beyond

Logistics, records inaudibly

The fountain starting up at 4 a.m.

Covered in bloom, wisteria

I charged the fantasy

 

To open live feed streaming

Through windows, security cameras

Mounted so you could see the whole without

Humming electric lights I believe

It's okay to plug in

Piecemeal serials of holding her

 

Amid a table made of unfamiliar trees

The argument falters

I might as well say

The lawn is very green in summer and

It is early now. When I wake

Power strips filled with chargers

 

Another satellite image but still no plane

We'll make a fire tomorrow

Reflected in windshields

And maybe the small range of this garden

Will run sideways as I wanted it to happen

Each day speaking for the public good

 

The woman is telling me what is

The most ordinary part of this fence

That was before I saw the earth is

Hardly earth, confusing ashes with

Next year's early snow isn't worth the effort

The argument continued all

 

Summer and it is summer now

The media storm occurred weeks after

I tasted the water, there's an app for

Turning off the fountain in silence

Moving through honeysuckle

An objection I should counter

 

Grows everywhere the microphone extends

A terrace slick with orange

Seeds the subject changed

To something no one understands

Another wordless grammar elegant as code.