Re move / Three

Jim LaVilla-Havelin

March 6, 2022

            harnessed to your daughter

                                    skeleton-skinny you walk

                                                across the living room floor

            they have taken

                                    everything they can

                                                                        out of you

            Noah smartly when he went

                                    took two of each so when

                                                                        they landed

            three emerged to start the world again

                                    and he, used the wood from

                                                                          his trusty ark

            to create a set of convenient rockers

                                    for him to sit

                                                            to tell

            the tale. The narrative arc encrusted

                                    with metaphor, moves us

                                                            nodding by the fire –

            and once turns slowly into now

                                    and now unwinds into

                                                something like then

            tomorrow

                        and tomorrow

                                                and tomorrow

            pulled from each account and tethered to her

                                    we move across time too

                                                            we walk into darkness

Jim LaVilla-Havelin is the author of five books of poetry. His chapbook TALES FROM THE BREAKAWAY REPUBLIC will be published by Moonstone Press in Philadelphia in 2022. Coordinator of National Poetry Month in San Antonio and Poetry Editor for the San Antonio Express-News, LaVilla-Havelin lives out in the country, in Lytle, Texas with his wife, the artist, Lucia LaVilla-Havelin, and two cats.