grow overcast this morning germane
to my love your quiet noises
of and in the water
what I can’t quit I bring with me
corrugated rock and orange daylilies
like the skirt on Flaming June
and thank god for neither of us
remember seeing her at the Frick
so we can go together
and compare the sun to you
James resplendent in mesh
neon orange daylight
crowding out the clouds
each temporary tattoo of the bird
crossing the sky printed on our arms
filmy and obscure—riverlike in gesture
stained with one streaky red
the train completing this railroad apartment
somehow “in the country” which is to say
its newness is all you
the sand now turning as you say:
the cloud approaches the moon like a spaceship
KATHERINE GIBBEL’s poems have been published in Bat City Review, The Bennington Review, Gulf Coast Online, Underblong and elsewhere. She holds an MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand.