Andrea L. Watson
Reckless Light Ordains Each Leaving
What monster will I adore? — Arthur Rimbaud ‡ In the house that knows, she wears the amulet of quiet. The Altar of Quiet is accept— Accept two silver bracelets. Accept the staircase of binding. Even the attic is burning, accept the stolen pearl ring. ‡ ‡ This is what her lord tells her, this is what she must believe: Climb seven steps to the darkest moon— Wait on the iron bed. Rubies tinge sheets, tucked tight, tighter, skin splays lustrous wide. ‡ ‡ ‡ On a perfect day, there is nothing— His truck rides some no name road, clouds are doves flocking, she remembers her face in the mirror, the mirror of except—as when hands sewn from midnight unlatch her as when ‡ ‡ ‡ ‡ she counts out ten childhoods. Feel the rotten sparks of his body release her— Envy train tracks pointing west.
Andrea L. Watson’s poetry has appeared in Runes, Ekphrasis, Cream City Review, Subtropics, The Dublin Quarterly, International Poetry Review, Nimrod and Memoir (and). Her show, Braided Lives: A Collaboration Between Artists and Poets, was sponsored by the Taos Institute of Arts in 2003 and has traveled to San Francisco, Denver and Berkeley. She is co-editor of Collecting Life: Poets on Objects Known and Imagined.
