Borderlands

Gillian Conoley

Late flies large as nearly extinct black bees

burrow in wisteria

when the desert has all the carcasses

Flies grow L’s for legs

the world often barely perceptible, its sometime sugary smell

a rustic divination, a chainlink

Debt builds

credit,

the envelopes tower on the kitchen counter

tilt day’s movement from spring to

summer, when at last there is time, huge delivered cubes of it

to open all newspapers shoved under couch, tape some

on walls, make links

with a red Sharpie

and still I cannot learn

our kingdom its cages

At Rite Aid: Infinite Shine 2 Lacquer nail polish

named Withstands Test of Thyme

an aqua transbluent sage, nice

Women in sundresses, shirtless men, fish trapped

by ecstatic children brown, white

carrying magenta-haired dolls into river

sky blue remote bot drones

Balancing red snapper arranged on a plate, signature

cocktails, browser, dowser,

bitching on my vacay, I ride tidal galaxy in gulf whitecaps

I have time to think

how does one

make of time

a servant

not the other way around––when there is nothing to do one can

discern a divine intervention from an ambrosial urban myth

it is an extremely

advanced yoga pose

to enact

such a dimension of

“here I am” and “there are

others” above the Pacific, pelicans in military formation

make a feathered V, I say a few words

into an abandoned silo

I say “citizen of the world”

up to blown sky––

I say welcome to our infinite, unmerciful, eternal
estrangement, home

to the girl from Oaxaca crossed over

a placenta’s swell
>  she says this partnership is not working out
a purple martin in deleafed tree

whenever I say I it sounds extrajudicial,

the fine sprays of misunderstood words also say

check out shelf with local honey

it will help you

breathe better

and be dreamful companion

to polyglot strangers who built our republic,

their strolling, ghostly greenish speckled shade cast under oaks

already a chainlink

hitch to her stride

Radio says

put saucer of sugar water out if you see a weak black bee

And if there is no place

to park the car

why did you get in it

I wonder if courage in one world

can create an expanse in another

Is it akin to lovers who are alive in each other?

Pushing my cart past the shelves

the grocery aisle says sea salt

is a sorryass hygienic tragedy

When I check out, the robot thanks me for doing its work

I say we’re still alive in a polite tone

In the morning the river is busy

dividing an uncracked code

Everlasting