Brenda Coultas

Softening

Doing soft things with soft lines
And soft pressure on soft paper
I soften the hierarchy
Render the wavy glass into
Black lines thickened
by water
Wet the rocks and the beach
Let the sea urchins write
With their spikes and teeth
Wet the sea
To See
What was mine.

A Soak

Bits of bread
Soaked
In tea

a soak is a juice sandwich

Don’t carve a monument to sorrow.
It’s a purposeful fire truck
In search of alarms
Red is the candy apple of possible rescue

My sorrow became my arrow

Aimed at
People who bother
Quietly living animals.

On Parchment or a Dried Leaf Make a Tarot Card for Disagreeable Clouds

I know of old houses with coal chutes.
Do they, the chutes, talk of disfigured earth?

A card for clouds
Made of coal

Shiny and contagious and
All over my shirt

The glow is obviously
dust

A card for a life that is not diamonds

I compress thee
I compress thee
I compress thee

Card of arguing clouds.

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 In the mid-90s, Brenda Coultas moved to New York City to work on the staff of the Poetry Project. Her essay on her origins as a poet can be found in the anthology Other Influences: Essays on Feminist Avant-garde Poetic Lineages.