Thursday, September 2, 2010

Cork

Cork

Cork is talented with holes
because it is inlaid with them.

Cork can close them up,
can crawl into a bottle’s mouth

and silence the wine
in its throat and belly. Cork

welcomes the nail and pin.
It is good at getting pierced,

at gripping the sharp edge
back. Similarly, we are gifted

in loss. Experiences fall
from us as they happen, baby

teeth, jettisoned potential.
People leave, get shipped off

to other dimensions. Even
memories go away, burn out

like stars. Let us learn from
cork, from our talent for having

things taken away, our
adoration of the irretrievable.

4 comments

  1. From Therese B -- This reminds me of the 230-year old champaign recently retrieved from a shipwreck. I like that the poem has cork silencing wine; I never thought of wine as having noise, but it does when it's poured or when it bubbles.

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  2. I have to exclaim WOW each time I read one of your poems...I need to learn from CORK for sure! : )

    xoxo

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  3. "We are gifted in loss," but not all of us can renew ourselves when we're practically skinned alive. There are lessons to be learned here.

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