The Poetry Project

The Idle Ladder Max Left

Cliff Fyman & Bernadette Mayer

The first day of autumn is spreading out

evenly beyond the little boxes of time

Cliff might be going to the chop board

with a pocketful of chips of locust limbs

on a day accidentally golden

Let’s walk to the war protest rally

and add to the head count

little things mean a lot in the time space

continuum. It means a lot to return

to talk to you. It means a lot to return

to talk to you too. You could

fool us into thinking it was still summer

or April fool’s day when we walked

to the creek and were awed

by the fossil footprints of faster animals

What are you really thinking, yesterday?

To follow the line of thinking in this

charged space... I am everywhere,

are you with me today?

Yes I’m with you today. Let’s make some

buttery rugelach for Friday night

Let’s step outside the camp for

a minute and raise some sparks!

Like two perfect poached pears

on a day accidentally golden

millions of those little wings

Elsewhere