I become the girl in the photo

Last night all of the moon came up out
of the headland and you saw the land
because of the moon. The land was almost
yellow and brown and almost too the green patches
of moss. You could almost see all of that. And
we wondered if people ever looked for
lost things with the help of the moon,
and said no we'll wait for another night
to look, a night when the moon is full.
I've spent days on a roof with a
gallon of tar and felt and tacks and
then a few days inside a house prying
off various qualities of wallboard
and peeling away seven layers of wallpaper
and then finding photos that are ninety
years old, of a girl standing by the
side of a house and suddenly I see that
it's the house I'm in -- there's a
distinct feature to the frame of the
window. And I go outside to check the
window and yes I'm right it is the
very window and then I realize I'm
standing in the same spot as the girl
in the photo. When you stand on a roof
you own the house.

Around the bay with the Delmore Brothers

A pickup passes with a young ram
in the back. I'm listening to the
Delmore Brothers. Why didnt anyone
tell me about the Delmore Brothers
before? From the 30s and 40s.
They have one song, The Frozen
Girl, that the Handsome Family
must have heard. They are not bluegrass
even though the CD cover says they
are. They yodel. They have a tenor
guitar. I heard of them because they
are mentioned in the CD liner notes
to The Louvin Brothers. Their harmonies
are breaking my heart. I have to stop
and look at the cold blue sea. The snow
in a backyard is arced like a horseshoe,
and catches in all the alders.

Half a day in St. John's

The car rental agencies close at noon
on Saturdays. On Signal Hill it's
a belting wind, freezing, a destroyer
storming into port, a white
stretch limo parks and the driver opens
the door to a turquoise bride and
her husband and the best man and his
date. Are they crazy? They stand around
determined to take pictures,
there are bare shoulders and hands
on hairdos, then they all convince
whoever it was who had the idea to
pile in again. At the newest Sobeys
in the newest part of town a young clerk has to
flatten the bar code on my blood
pudding so he can swipe it.

Two lines

Woman: How are you feeling?
Man: Yes.