Rarely do I remember another month, August.
Rarely another day do I remember.
I threw tarps over a life
and never could they reach?
still hastily I gathered
tarps more rare by the hour
in the city of nothing to spare.
I draped true but thin shores
for the shipwreck
as the radio said:
Rarely does as rarely has
grown tired of not doing.
Take your rarities.
Take your household gods.
If you have no gods:
make them.
Rarely another day do I remember.
I threw tarps over a life
and never could they reach?
still hastily I gathered
tarps more rare by the hour
in the city of nothing to spare.
I draped true but thin shores
for the shipwreck
as the radio said:
Rarely does as rarely has
grown tired of not doing.
Take your rarities.
Take your household gods.
If you have no gods:
make them.
Katie Ford
Katie Ford is the author of Deposition and Colosseum, both from Graywolf Press. She has received awards from the Academy of American Poets and the PEN American Center and is the poetry editor of the New Orleans Review.
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