Shane Book

National Treasure

It could be we were not
meant to think of things in such scope.
Like yesterday the midwinter
dark-nooned city seemed to smear in mist,
before the autumn hotel window,
as when motors rev along the beachfront
while from a plane the ground appears
tiled: four circles to each white-lined square.
Later, when he tried to find
the city again, he never could. Harder
is the forest’s mutability, strafed
by investigations, as it were,
prescriptive dreams moving to call in
the lawyers or face a half-remembered
phrase—or was that after the lump appeared
on the side of your head? At this point
it means the center of the world.
And though I was the one who happily
went away, for months I felt lost
without you manning the dimmer,
hills of dishes, all of hair. You realized
before anyone else, the water makes
the rocks darker. On the face of it,
this seems an obvious axiom
of treasure hunting, a map littered
with symbols for “Find the noble
bird, let him take you by the hand”
and “You’re coming with me.”
Sitting at the Resolute Desk
you were starting to get used to
the answer being revealed
in a cloudless rain when the horizon
revealed—or was it the sky?—
stone islands in a grass sea,
exactly like the painting
in the President’s Book (a book
known only by the presidents) captioned:
“The location is the combination.” Crazy?
‘Cause last time I checked,
we pretty much make our living from crazy.

Shakara

Inside the martyrs gathered,
burying their fallen spaces
in piles. Past the chandelier piles,
past the firewalls,
along the walls of fires.
Way inside. A leaning sailboat beached
in a stationary wave
of human teeth. Another
quietly sticky day:
dust cloud on horizon unrisen,
red bird grazing overhead,
and Mother dancing
in her strapless. I knew it was her,
though her face had been removed
and my feet were tired. Things continued
inside. My things and the one
with the hammer’s things.
She was precise: chair legs
to shards, ropes to cinches,
tooth upon tooth.
The horsemen had not
yet been through but you
could smell them. And if you
sat completely still
you still
could not hear them.