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Pluperfect
Lauren Camp

The marble teahouse has four pillars and is open on one side.
Nests in two corners. I want nothing today
but to watch two robins fly to another brisk greenery
and return to their little baskets in a current of dialects.
The irises are starting to rise and will soon be
broken-hearted. I turn the knob of my binoculars.
Sit for hours, seeing. I try on a story.
How I desire to recite the world.
A heavy mower has been grinding along and gets closer
in its gesture, summarizing a clearing.
It circulates its hungry motions, picks clean.
Silence forgives it. Through the lens I see the baby robins
hold their mouths open. Small gasping vessels.

—
Lauren Camp is the author of five books, most recently Took House (Tupelo Press). Honors include the Dorset Prize and finalist citations for the Arab American Book Award, Housatonic Book Award, and North American Book Award. Her poems have appeared in Kenyon Review, Prairie Schooner, and Poet Lore, and her work has been translated into Mandarin, Turkish, Spanish, Serbian, and Arabic. She lives in New Mexico, where she teaches creative writing to people of all ages.

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