<div class="line">Someone said <span style="font-style: italic;">Watch</span></div>
<div class="line"><span style="font-style: italic;">the baby</span>, so I watched her</div>
<div class="line">sleep, small mouth with</div>
<div class="line">a bubble at the edge. Hands</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">like little double OKs. All</div>
<div class="line">of human history pulsing</div>
<div class="line">in the shallow vein</div>
<div class="line">of her temple. A thin beige</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">umbrella over her head,</div>
<div class="line">raindrops exploding</div>
<div class="line">themselves against it,</div>
<div class="line">trying to touch her.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MillerUmbrella.mp3"></audio></figure>

Monopoly

Emergence

Umbrella

<div class="line">Of course I picture the actual house, my little peaked roof</div>
<div class="line">riding the plate southward back through Neocene, Cretaceous,</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">beachfront, then sub-marine, and passing through the dinosaurs</div>
<div class="line">so fast—they were only our granddads, but there before</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">the flowers began. So long—but what is long, when before them</div>
<div class="line">everything felt the world die off, a 76 percent extinction,</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">and that’s not even the big one before that, when almost</div>
<div class="line">all of the plants died. What I thought would be wonder</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">instead has me thinking about lab tests</div>
<div class="line">and art and sitting with friends and laughing and the speck-</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">ness of us all, and the fathoms of space. And us,</div>
<div class="line">just wisps, white forms on an x-ray, nature riffing out another sub-</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">species, us with wild impractical hair and voices</div>
<div class="line">that sing at the kitchen window while we’re doing the dishes.</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">And although my neighbors have a new sound system</div>
<div class="line">and <em>The Lord of the Rings</em> on endless replay, I feel</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">forgiving toward them tonight, with their magic</div>
<div class="line">and sleepy brotherhood. I mean, it’s all extinction</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">eventually, and look at us, we made movies about</div>
<div class="line">dinosaurs, and a boy walking by the water found the tooth</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">of a mammoth just last month—that recent in the blink</div>
<div class="line">of life in the vast dry eye of the planet. It’s possible</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">to think more than one thing at once—that’s</div>
<div class="line">evolution for you—and fear of leaving this life</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">rides right along with a oneness with the megalodons</div>
<div class="line">and the algae. And the die-offs—I can hardly say</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">the word—we have all fallen, cancered, arterially</div>
<div class="line">seized so many many times, entire oceans</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">of loss and leaving. Tonight four pillows</div>
<div class="line">on the couch lie together like a pile of sleeping</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">cats. The prayer plant closes its long hands.</div>
<div class="line">The Christmas lights will have to come down</div>
<div class="line"> </div>
<div class="line">from the doorway, dark bulbs from another</div>
<div class="line">season, while the house moves swiftly through the year.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MillerSeeing.mp3"></audio></figure>

Improvident

Poets Respond

The Heart, Like A Bocce Ball

On Seeing My Home Move Backward Through Geological Time

<p class="epil"><em>for my mother</em></p>
<div class="line">That summer in Misquamicut, when boys</div>
<div class="line">as ripe as roadside corn shot pool in darkened</div>
<div class="line">eighteen-over bars, I found the joy</div>
<div class="line">they buried deep in denim straight-front pockets—</div>
<div></div>
<div class="line">pipe screens, joints, and all the damp and salty</div>
<div class="line">wounded want my navigating hands</div>
<div class="line">could plunder. Home and sunburned, bedroom walls</div>
<div class="line">my gulag—no diary, no dolls—digging sand</div>
<div></div>
<div class="line">and ashes from the trenches of my shoes,</div>
<div class="line">I heard her laughing—late, in bed with Dad,</div>
<div class="line">no malice in her voice, in love—a girl whose</div>
<div class="line">moody boy came home for her with mad</div>
<div></div>
<div class="line">martinis, seven jokes to sleep on, sleep</div>
<div class="line">itself a garland he laid at her feet.</div>


I’d Drive Anywhere with You

Constancy

Rhode Island

<div class="line">Sleep now. The city</div>
<div class="line">you were building in your head,</div>
<div class="line">its shouting and conveyances,</div>
<div class="line">its strikers and unhelpful signs,</div>
<div class="line">its cops with their stern citations,</div>
<div class="line">rest. Rest the piteous call</div>
<div class="line">from your sister and the words</div>
<div class="line">you boiled in the pot</div>
<div class="line">all day.</div>
<div class="line2">Somewhere</div>
<div class="line">deer fatten in a sudden</div>
<div class="line">thaw. A lake floats hundreds</div>
<div class="line">of Russians in bathing suits.</div>
<div class="line">And your dreams—no one can take</div>
<div class="line">those wild paintings</div>
<div class="line">and unbelievable music,</div>
<div class="line">or your lashes dropping</div>
<div class="line">their feathers, or the factory</div>
<div class="line">of your own lungs,</div>
<div class="line">quietly working into the night.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MillerLullaby.mp3"></audio></figure>

Crosswalk

Coal Smoke

A Lullaby

<div class="line">When the movie starts, cross yourself</div>
<div class="line">for all the nights and weekends</div>
<div class="line">lost by the long lists of workers, for the ones</div>
<div class="line">who got sick and quit the business, who blew</div>
<div class="line">all their money on shrinks, for the one</div>
<div class="line">who got beaned by an ashtray thrown</div>
<div class="line">by the petulant star.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">Walking by a playground, throw bark</div>
<div class="line">over your left shoulder as you watch</div>
<div class="line">the little boy tease the girl, the budding man</div>
<div class="line">inside him rising like a fist.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">Wear your lucky slob clothing while you watch</div>
<div class="line">the movie of the man playing a slob, his sideways</div>
<div class="line">sneer like your own while you crash daily</div>
<div class="line">into the obstacles of love and faith, while you try</div>
<div class="line">to balance a coffee in one hand and your childish</div>
<div class="line">expectations in the other, while holding</div>
<div class="line">in the fold of your belly a fear of being made a fool,</div>
<div class="line">of loving a photo of someone or maybe an actual body</div>
<div class="line">living right there with you, who has always set off</div>
<div class="line">your alarms but you choose to think they’re only</div>
<div class="line">your own irrational blood pounding</div>
<div class="line">in your ears for no real reason.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">On the sidewalk, step over every doubt. You have</div>
<div class="line">no room for them. You are busy and you want</div>
<div class="line">to like what you like and go to bed without</div>
<div class="line">a nagging thought that burrows in and wakes up</div>
<div class="line">your body at 2 a.m., whirring in the dark.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">Do not walk under the ladder of your friendly</div>
<div class="line">neighbor, who has always been too friendly and</div>
<div class="line">damn it, you don’t want to think that, you want to be</div>
<div class="line">stoned on kindness like a yoga teacher, but you also</div>
<div class="line">have caught him looking down from his upstairs window</div>
<div class="line">late at night while you’re bringing in the trash can and</div>
<div class="line">damn it, that’s never felt right.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">If you break your car’s side mirror you’ll get seven years</div>
<div class="line">of some guy watching you eat lunch as you sit in the safety</div>
<div class="line">of your ’67 Cougar before you realize his face hasn’t moved</div>
<div class="line">from his mirror and he’s watching you steadily, sitting</div>
<div class="line">in his car in the next row in the lot, bouncing you off</div>
<div class="line">a 45-degree angle and making some motion you see</div>
<div class="line">just enough of to know, and you start your car</div>
<div class="line">and drive away nonchalantly as if you didn’t notice,</div>
<div class="line">watching in your mirror to make sure he doesn’t follow.</div>
<div> </div>
<div class="line">While you watch the movie, light incense to bring you</div>
<div class="line">back to yourself, to remind you that you are living here</div>
<div class="line">now, that the world has always had dickheads, that you</div>
<div class="line">are not sitting with one right now, and outside a frog</div>
<div class="line">has started up croaking behind the hawthorn bush,</div>
<div class="line">and he’s talking about sex and maybe some aggression</div>
<div class="line">but you know exactly where he’s coming from,</div>
<div class="line">and you’re not a frog so it’s just a song, something</div>
<div class="line">that lulls you to sleep, as all lullabies are darker</div>
<div class="line">and more dangerous than you once believed, but even</div>
<div class="line">sleep is now something different, not entirely pure</div>
<div class="line">but it has its pleasures, its emptying, its motionless beauty.</div><figure class="wp-block-audio"><audio controls src="https://admin.rattle.com/audio/MillerSuperstitions.mp3"></audio></figure>

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September 6, 2022A LullabyAmy Miller

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September 6, 2022A LullabyAmy Miller

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