Circuitry

By Alice B. Fogel

by night we played and rode       its gridlocked flow pattern
                  this is where                                    wherever it wasn’t
         already bisected        we split
the astral ground                              in our bare feet
our unbuttoned shirts and dirty               party dresses
                         threads of guipure lace  torn on an intricate system
of corset bones              we circled
the aerial rose gardens   bowed    and curtsied and followed  
     closely the buried turns of worms
in this fashion     by night     we leapt the hidden neighborhoods’
   irrigation ditches                           took every courtyard
                and path               electric                we generated
apertures and cracks      a full blown map
of grass and streets                       Paris canals
     and city trees                a million orchestral moons
    ringing and strumming with light             this is why
before dawn          night by night     we were radiant and damp
       with dew      how            wrung     unstrung      we grew

Alice B. Fogel is New Hampshire's poet laureate, a National Endowment fellowship recipient, and the author of numerous books of poetry, most recently A Doubtful House and Interval: Poems Based on Bach's Goldberg Variations. She also wrote Strange Terrain, a book for readers on how to appreciate poetry without necessarily "getting" it.