She watches her clothes fall down chutes,
the cotton swoop, the dull release of wool
she wore and how it drops so far below
the floor she stands so still on,
how it falls as quickly as her eyes do
when she’s spoken to, absorbed
by patterns in the tile as she weaves
toward windows painted shut.
She remembers the film, the one she made
before she dropped out of school,
the air gone sour, the Super 8 pan
of movie-house bathrooms—the gravitas—
the pause between sigh and flush.
She finds the film and torches it
with a blue Bic lighter, flame trained
on frames she shot herself: the clothes
she wore. The windows. The floor.
Published in Cider Press Review, Volume 25, Issue 1.
Wyn Cooper has published five books of poetry, including, most recently, Mars Poetica. His poems, stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, as well as in 25 anthologies of contemporary poetry. Many of his poems have been turned into songs, including by recording artists Sheryl Crow, David Broza, and Madison Smartt Bell. He is a former editor of Quarterly West, and the recipient of a fellowship from the Ucross Foundation. His first novel, Way Out West, was published in 2022. He lives in Vermont, and works as a freelance editor. www.wyncooper.com
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