By Martha Silano

For there is a dram.

For there is a farthing.

A bushel for your thoughts.

A hand for your withered heights.

For I have jouled along attempting

to quire and wisp.

For I have sized up a mountain’s meters,

come down jiffy by shake to the tune

of leagues and stones.

For once I was your peckish darling.

For once there was the measure

of what an ox could plow

in a single morning.

For once the fother, the reed, the palm.

For one megalithic year I fixed my gaze

on the smiling meniscus, against the gray wall

of graduated cylinder.

For once I measured ten out of ten

on the scale of pain.

For I knew that soon I’d kiss good-bye

the bovate, the hide and hundredweight.

For in each pinch of salt, a whisper of doubt,

for in each medieval moment, emotion,

like an unruly cough syrup bottle,

uncapped. For though I dutifully swallowed

my banana doses, ascended, from welcome

to lanthorn, three barleycorns at a time,

I could not tackle the trudging, trenchant cart.

For now I am forty rods from your chain and bolt.

For now I am my six-sacked self.

• Living

Poet Bio

Martha Silano has authored four books of poetry, including Reckless Lovely (2014) and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception (2011), both from Saturnalia Books.  See More By This Poet

More Poems about Living