Two Poems

Rae Armantrout

Asterisk

Cresting the fence, each leaf
sharply particular, edgy, nearly
identical to its kin.

*

String of periods.

String of period
living rooms, lights
coming on in them.

*

One’s coordinates

or the coordinates
one is?

*

To be found
wanting.

*

How many billion
suns blazing
and the universe
still dark

Narrative

Scattered against dark conifers,
the seared gold trees
I take for signal fires.

You too.

What do you think
they’re saying?

*

In fiction, time
runs both ways

and the past is legible,
harmless.

*

Question:

How are beauty
and meaning
connected?

Beauty seduces meaning.
Meaning stalks beauty.

Beauty breaks down
into meaning.

Meaning breaks down
into dreams.