Far and Near

Fanny Howe

Small silver face out of the gray

I call it a deer in a phantom forest
Baader Meinhof with a future

Smoke of assassination
Burning of oil  

Maybe it's trees that have broken away
Or clouds around them  

A dragon-shaped smear on a window

But there is a moment of clarity
When nothing is out there

Now I call it an asshole
In fiery red clothing

Light shoots from its finger
Like wind with hair  

Is it an alien cowering
In the rape robe of war?  

Mother and child on an icy globe?

Or just the eyes of day