Poetry
For Lucia Berlin
by Cody Todd
In this dream, Lucia is alive again
and an earthquake has shaken New Mexico
to little pieces of bedrock and granite
so I am digging in the earth for her, my story
of the sundial made of quartz
and the philosopher’s statue molded from wet
sand like my life which is mapped out
on sheet-music for a cellist to break four strings
while trying to make it all sound sad and urgent
and Lucia is afraid that my story is long-
gone with the gypsies and the plants with water
you can drink inside of them and you can dance all night
with the thieves who will rob you blind and break your heart
and die with grins wide as sickles on their faces
and I am talking about cookies with little
happy-boy faces of frosting painted upon them
and I am talking about a woman so unmanageable
she drank lemon extract all night until
the liquor stores opened the same time
the schools did and in this dream Lucia
is alive and she is walking along the ruins
of Albuquerque oh Albuqurque poor
Albuquerque we’ve lost you we’ve done all we can
to find you your sunsets your sad apples your
Indian reservation casino signs blinking
like a bag of watches under the tire of a Toyota