Contents

Preface : Swimming Lessons i Acknowledgments vi dragonflies 1 I discovered a crumpled paper form, 2 when it snows 3 on glacial nights 4 The accompanying notes 5 I sit 6 Tesselated tiles of land 7 The Night-Threaders might camouflage 8 The Harvestmen, with grain 9 To liberate 10 Hanging lanterns, 11 In our houses, 12 An orange heat sheds outer iron, 13 she 14 the trees 15 Some small, broken shadows 16 Down 17 I can pinpoint the moment on my skin. 18 the sun 19 The family forms a liquid name, 20 I swim to sleep, 21 tales shared underwater 22 We spend our entire lives 23 ballasted words 24 An epitaph as the cemetery 25 She gave me: 26 I buried something, remnants of a cloak, 27 The Night-Threaders finish 28 No one looks down as much as she did. 29 All houses are settled with some ghosts 30 The sun carves puzzles 31 the Messengers 32 water 33 Resting on waterfall rocks, 34 The scene below sealine: 35 I open glass chambers 36 in the trench 37 anxiety 38 A dream of her 39

the ashen Harvestmen 40 The water marks itself in lines 41 as lightning aches 42 depths 43 A ghost. 44 So rare, they call her (light). 45 the fragments that begin 46 an ignorance of what happens 47 The water gives us no anchoring. 48 I put in a few offerings in the water bowl: 49 Camouflaged, 50 1978, Prague: 51 Spotted near the shoreline: houses 52 from here 53 In the city, between water and forest, 54 A ripple along the nets. 55 I sometimes think 56 alight off a knotted branch 57 Our individuality make us insignificant. 58 All provinces pool together. 59 As the violas keen 60 I often haunt intelligent ways, 61 Exposing one tear, 62 I lift bottles and candlesticks 63 We moved from water to land 64 The Messengers dart, aimless, 65 The stumbling city skeleton 66 The woman 67 The Night-Threaders weave vibrations 68 the sun 69 Debris re-collects in currents. 70 flight 71 Ghosts talk in manufactured silence, 72 INVOCATION: 73 each wing lift 74 The Arbiters capture and record 75 the leaf 76 clouds are gorgeous 77 The Messengers provide me cheap diversions. 78 I have found the unusual through 79 Long-jawed and spinning fondly, 80 Dont forget to mention 81 In the ocean wash and wreckage, 82 she condenses 83 CodHigh up in the canopy, 84

Down the water column, 85 I shuddered. 86 Our home divined from six trees, 87 gravestones 88 an extra rib or two 89 Instead of fear, 90 Unmasked, I feel false in skin. 91 Everything I learned: wars, theories, 92 The Messengers plant trees 93 Before the midnight star 94 I learned to fly in hurricanes 95 They spin new twistings, 96 voice tied 97 I know more and more about surprises. 98 Arms out to dive: 99 the Messengers deliver 100 She and I scavenge the boneyard 101 in home 102 Im a false moonlight for prey, 103 where I am near water 104 Our home provided camouflage, 105 In the harbor town, there exists: 106 Another area opens a passage 107 she told 108 Without a breath, 109 the brushstroke looking at swans 110 Arbiters catch some model research specimens. 111 divine the air currents 112 this scene depicts 113 Barriers fissure under what 114 Distant ridges materialize 115 A body just visible as a shade, 116 I lift air bubbles to send messages 117 once again 118 Below a tree root, 119 coughing 120 At night, the Messengers 121 Breaking light on sanddollars, 122 the Arbiters 123 The Messengers send flares as rain 124 by collective only 125 Stripes show a sandline across fading 126 The lighthouse heralds the gates 127 a wave 128 Scavengers pick up the pieces 129

Treading water again 130 Theres rituals attached to carrying 131 I lay flush with. 132 The Arbiter clutches an air bubble, 133 I often break out at night 134 the Night-Threaders control rainfall 135 I discover 136 All structures collapse 137 unburdened again 138 Ive got those strange feelings 139 a leaf print 140 Pretty shifts of color, 141 On where the 142 to take human form 143 In depressions, 144 The Arbiters tell fortunes 145 The deep, undone concert strings. 146 The Night-Threaders craft 147 The Arbiters cold light 148 the Messengers thrash 149 An inscription in murky water, 150