Two Octets from New Year's Day

willamette river octet
(1/1/17)

gulls circle the Burnside Bridge in clockwise swoops,
launching from trusses, soaring over streetlight

towers—but the green-black water is troubled;
leaves still haunting the east bank, bleached & drifting;

at water’s edge, in the douglas firs’ reflection,
underwater rocks, one heart-shaped wine-red leaf

shimmering: the merganser floats on current’s
ripples away from driftwood, rusted culverts


◦    ◦    ◦


january evening octet
(1/1/17)

between here & Fremont: unforgiving air
pinched bronchioles with invisible digits—

sharp aroma of home fried red potatoes
in olive oil with scads of crushed red pepper—

boxwood Guanyin at the edge of lamplight, eyes
lowered, listening amongst framed photographs—

unnamed sound from the kitchen clicks at random,
off time to syncopate with the clock, these breaths



Jack Hayes
© 2017