Mouse Eggs
Vehicule Poets
A Personal Anthology, 1978 - 2014
Stephen Morrissey
From The Trees of Unknowing, Vehicule Press, Montreal, 1978:
"there are seagulls and cats..."
there are seagulls and cats
and on the beach which is a line
of grey sand there are people standing
where the sky meets the earth
if there was a photograph
it wld show 30% earth and 70% sky
if there was a photograph
I wld place you in it
standing in front of a white house
just behind where the photograph was taken
and inside the white house
there are empty rooms and quilts
and you are saying "reason over passion"
in 40 foot high letters as I take your picture
when it is developed all we see is the white house
and think how silent it is with only
the sound of the sea
and a seagull circling over the white house
and then flying back out to sea
where it circles a fishing boat
in one room is a lobster trap
and a mantel and on the mantel
are shells that you have pickt up on your daily walks
there is one room which is filled with rocks
that you have collected with smoothness and
roundness in mind
later you took these rocks to montreal in a truck
& had a show which was documented with photographs
and these photographs now lie in a drawer
in that white house
in one window which has caught your reflection
and seems to hold onto it like a negative
there is a cat sitting and watching you walk along
the beach and I am taking your photograph
in your hand is a shell that you pickt up
and I have arranged rocks on the beach so that
they read "leave off fine book larning"
and I am taking all of these photographs
which I tack onto trees and we watch the rain and wind
wear them away and wonder abt the passing years
and some photographs I drop into the lobster trap
and you take it down to the sea and when you return
they have dissolved in the salt water
there is a quilt lying on the bed and in the quilt
there is a sleeping cat
and as I turn to photograph the house
she rises and yawns
and you have your children whom you teach to draw
and they are walking with you along the beach
I do not take any photographs of myself
but once I caught a likeness
reflected in a pool of water
it is an image I sometimes catch
among all of the images I have had of you