1.

The frontier opens onto an eye. This means there will be danger

mixed with minimalism.

                                            I did not always want the obvious

but just a corner in the world, a small one with soft lighting

and a bowl of grapes.

                                       The whole thing was weak.

The way you kept saying those same few words.

After the floor is swept, the spices bottled and filed,

and the wood chips carefully gathered. Once, in passing,

you told me all dreams are site-specific installations.

2.

The throat machines are humming and the structures

are painstakingly notated. The audience's departure

will occur in thirds.

                               The document was stamped classified

which in my mind permitted a nap.

Once, specifically, you told me how to install

a dream into the sleep of a prospective lover. It was the dream

of the wound with nine holes.

                                               The names were unfamiliar

3.

but they were clearly printed on a list and the list

was clearly of some importance in my life

and my life was clear in its existence

and existence was out of the context

and the context was meant to be real

but more and more, what was real

became a phobia that left me buried

and barred from entering such thresholds.

                                                          The windows are covered

with wool blankets to prevent the drafts

in cracks hidden and suspected.

                                                  Each note ignites or

extinguishes

4.

a candle.

           The wicks, like the nature of the snowflake, will each be

indistinguishable.

                                 The voice talks on and on about position

and where the orchestra should be hung. It is important

for the notes to float for as long as each breath allows. And the

     eyelashes

slung crookedly are the only emotion.

                                                                         While singing

each spice should be emptied into a pot. It is very upsetting

5.

The onion powder loses the effect of the onion.

Tears are important to any show.

The words are always the same. Even when

embroidered on a pillow in a fine stitch and a color

everyone can agree is quite favorable.

                                                              I could not sleep

because of it, how they entered and exited, like horrible

guests who do not wipe their feet or ask permission

to touch a book in a delicately fine dust jacket.

I wear my jacket inside to avoid the dust from coming too close.

I button all the wise holes. Please, stay your distance.

—Brett Fletcher Lauer