The Fern Seed

fern seed: the seed of the fern; once popularly supposed to be an
invisible seed and to confer invisibility upon its possessor.

-Oxford Universal Dictionary

By the slight dimpling of my palm
I knew I owned it, meat and hull. What meat
I cannot say, except that one swallowing

unfastened me from the eye's sight.
Splendid undress: I lost my elbows first.
What I bodied through bodied through me

stem or stone, bird or rain-landscapes fathomed
my passage; the offing heeded my oncoming.
At an amble, I entered the house you built

for me. Tongue and groove, threshold and stair:
dishevelment was elsewhere. I found no drawer
unshut, no hair in a fruit cup, and within

the cellar's wettest room, you did your sorting
unceasingly, soothing your fingers with
dove-bodied things. Carpenter, I heard

your hands. And knew that all was as I'd left
it, which was not what I'd expected
in my absence. Nor each dormer level

in each wall, nor the same sag in the hardwood floor
giving beneath my ill-defined feet. In short,
I wanted the house to miss me more, and so

I left, choosing the entrance for my exit.
Goodbye, doorframe; goodbye, sill.
You should be saddened by my gallop

on the uphill, my skirts still riding the clotheshorse.
Love, I was ever your cocksure domestic.
But for my part, I preferred the solitary dwelling.

Copyright © 2006 Cecily Parks All rights reserved
from River Styx
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission