After A Death

Two white sheets,
dripping slowly to the street,
turn blue

from looking too long.
This March day gives
weak, pale light
,

shade, and light again;
warmth peeling
away from the skin.

Broken clouds
form
along the horizon,

spreading out their wings.
Stay here
on the surface of things,

the last egg-yellow light
shining through
hanging gardens of rain.

Seattle Photos & A Poem By Rita Dove

Geometry

I prove a theorem and the house expands:
the windows jerk free to hover near the ceiling,
the ceiling floats away with a sigh.

As the walls clear themselves of everything
but transparency, the scent of carnations
leaves with them.  I 
am out in the open

and above the windows have hinged into butterflies,
sunlight glinting where they’ve intersected.
They are going to some point true and unproven.

Rita Dove

Best to break reality up into tasks, manageable, soluble; pushing us to the edge of one of many circles. After a few days, the dream city appears, glittering again upon the horizon.

A blue and white promise.