a haunting...

readings this week...

Dianne Ackerman

A Strange Disorder

A strange disorder rules the house
where lately slender method scared
papers into files neat as hedgerows
and caution laid its dropcloth everywhere.
Now books lie slaughtered on the rug,
the telephone rings, old letters dune
among bills and maps and coffee spoons
in a room spontaneous as a compost heap
where you work the oracle of my thoughts
and haunt the prison of my sleep.

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Ackerman is a poet with a masterful command of music – This is a poem to live with. A stunning, small package.