“His son was a great-great-grandfather, with one eye blue, one eye brown // Another forebear died lost on drift ice far outside in the Gulf. His bones were found with a note that read in translation, ‘My name was Placide Aucoin. Anyone who finds my remains, please bury them’”
“My brother and I have our parents’ dog with us. They rushed up to the farm as soon as they found out about my grandfather, to be with my grandmother and help plan the visitation and funeral. Now it’s our job to bring their carsick golden retriever.”
“I put on a Mingus record, Blues / and Roots, after my grandfather died, / and rummaged through an old wine box // that held family photos. In my favorite, / Granddad is on all fours, playing the pony.”
“Your mother is naked right now. She never slept naked when she was beautiful. When she was beautiful she hid herself in saggy pajamas with horrible things like penguins on them. Now one giant alabaster leg crosses over the other, so pale it’s almost blue.”
“It imitates the sound I make / when I’m sorry so perfectly / I fall deep in my recliner.”
“She sleeps, I listen, darkness / slides through us both.”
“In the village, people began rushing about while some of the boats veered across the bay to cut off the whales’ escape. This was the hunt.”
“Esteban and Desmond fished for perch / through ice holes at Devil’s Lake. Esteban // brought up a shaved head with a mustache.”
“Emptiness on water is called a boat.”
Agosti