Mar 20
Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
seen from Canada
seen from Germany
seen from Germany
seen from Canada
seen from France
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Isle of Man
seen from United States
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from Canada
seen from India
seen from United States
seen from Colombia
seen from Germany
seen from South Korea
seen from South Korea
seen from Hong Kong SAR China
seen from Australia
Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA
Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
Every Painting by Chagall
Every twined groom and bride, every air fish, smudged Russian, red horse, yellow chicken, assumes its position not actually beside but in some friendly distribution with a predictable companion. Every canvas insists on a similar looseness, each neck put to at least two uses. And wings from some bottomless wing source. They are pleasure wings of course since any horse or violinist may mount the blue simply by wanting to. (In freedom, dear things repeat without tedium.)
Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
Glass Slippers
Despite the hard luck of the ugly step sisters, most people's feet will fit into glass slippers. The arch rises, the heel tapers, the toes align in descending order and the whole thing slides without talcum powder into the test slipper. We can shape to the dreams of another; we are eager to yield. It is a mutual pleasure to the holder of the slipper and to the foot held. It is a singular moment—tender, improbable, and as yet unclouded by the problems that hobble the pair when they discover that the matching slipper isn't anywhere, nor does the bare foot even share the shape of the other. When they compare, the slippered foot makes the other odder: it looks like a hoof. So many miracles don't start far back enough. Kay Ryan, Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)
Someone has to get here before the mythology, to be happy in the first tailings of industry, and of course lonely and susceptible to the opinions of donkeys since donkeys are the main company out here among the claims. Snakes and wild things skitter off too fast for conversation. You can get an appreciation for why a donkey is fussy about books since she carries them.
Kay Ryan, from "A Certain Meanness of Culture," Flamingo Watching (Copper Beech Press, 1994)