Wandering down a blind alley. Scratched
into a Civic’s crimson hood, IRA, the two
vowels separated by the consonant
over which so much blood has been spilled.
The left side window is a spider’s web
of cracks spreading out from a hole
opposite the driver’s head. The temple
is not where the guidebook says it should be.
On its laminated green: St. Stephen the Martyr,
converted into condominiums. Through
staggered stained glass lancets, a triptych:
a woman making tea; an unmade double
bed; a pot-bound asparagus fern trailing
its emerald tracery to the floor, tough,
sticky, sharp as knives, bearing the red
berries it produces only when confined.
Previously published in “The National Poetry Competition Winners,” The Chester H. Jones Foundation (1997).
Andrea Carter Brown is the author of “The Disheveled Bed” and “Brook & Rainbow.” Her work is cited in the Library of Congress Online Research Guide to the Poetry of 9/11.
