readymade undertones

a poem by elly kalfus & Asiya Wadud as part of Echo Exhibit, a project pairing participants with writers for fifteen minute one-on-one telephone conversations.

it could begin by examining the space
mere edge then hemming more
allowing the space to make four boxes
then a brood or nest

all the transitory flight
how we fled our old intentions
left it at the storm door
closed it but the floods still came in

all the transitory flight we are ready
then some fleeting all forlorn
grips— what matters is how
we can remember then flood
the country with new disposition
take a salt bath inside one of
the four boxes

after I examined the space
didn’t forget a single frame
rough wrought

and the new life
I begin with a question