The Exchange
Is it rain or luck that falls to green
a hillside while the sun scorches
elsewhere? The living abound where
water is hunted or squandered.
It could be a woman of the desert
who weaves the bolts of shimmering silk
that are sold, flown, shipped thousands
of miles to be propped in a pricey shop
where the old pipes still leak since
it’s cheaper to let those things go
in certain climates. Perhaps a woman
walks in who installed a cement patio
and swimming pool to replace a grove
of littering trees. She reaches out
to stroke the extravagant fabric—
the bolt: not a dividing line but a public
place for the passing of hands:
rolling it up, unrolling it, there, here.
M. Nasorri Pavone’s poetry has appeared in River Styx, One, Sycamore Review, New Letters, b o d y, The Cortland Review, The Citron Review, Innisfree, Rhino, DMQ Review, Pirene’s Fountain, I-70 Review, 86 Logic and others. She’s been anthologized in Beyond the Lyric Moment (Tebot Bach, 2014), nominated several times for both Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize.