Two White Shirts Drying on the Mantel
Could have been a hundred years ago
When bricks had names
Two white shirts drying on the murderous fireplace
Clean as can be
The artist painted
dripping blood
often in a rage
He would do this for hours
other times,
pleasantly tripping and drunk
The two white
shirts are pleasantly
bleached into
Innocence
Write darkly
As young people do
And stop thinking,
it would be an accomplishment to do so
Despite the pleasures of making sense
Must be how a STOP sign feels
Always consistent
Even without
an audience
In the mid-90s, Brenda Coultas moved to New York City to work on the staff of the Poetry Project. Her poetry can be found in the anthology Other Influences: Essays on Feminist Avant-garde Poetic Lineages. Her latest collection, The Writing of an Hour, an ars poetica, was published by Wesleyan University Press in 2022.