after those of Louise Bourgeois

Although cells almost rhymes
with selves, I often feel I have
++++++++++++nothing
in common with the body
I’m in.

~

I note how they divide, subdivide
as if under a lens—this thought,
++++++++++++that emotion—
before art from chaos
can form.

~

August 1945. Hiroshima,
my parents’ wedding, Nagasaki,
++++++++++++war’s end.
In time, I would see my conception
as another link in that chain.

~

Combustible love. Till death
do us part. Such an odd circle
++++++++++++of bell ringers
we are, tolling one for the lost,
another for lives to come,

~

and so on to extinction.
Against that end,
++++++++++++I fill
pages with consolations
nights when the sirens wail.

~

When I thought my mother was dying,
I saw she was me in a hospital gown,
++++++++++++soft middle,
thin wrists, and I knew I’d be lost
if I lost her.

~

Secret, sliding, glass,
pocket, storm.
++++++++++++Revolving,
barred, louvered, French—
I like to think of doors

~

as ports of call
where travelers enter
++++++++++++the unknown,
for the time being
putting their cabins behind them.

~

The day the undertaker’s men
lifted him onto a stretcher
++++++++++++to ferry
my father away, I dreamt
he escaped through a hidden door.

~

Lift up your gates,
and you shall be lifted up—
++++++++++++a plainsong
that heightens the longing
within my echoing chambers.

~

In an isolation cell
one can begin to hear voices.
++++++++++++I wish
this was something I did not understand.
This unfastening.

~

It’s possible to break out
of a jailhouse or household,
++++++++++++although
most people tunnel away
inch by slow inch.

~

When I’m long gone,
with a view as wide
++++++++++++as Wyoming,
I might find myself
looking back

~

through a door left ajar,
half in love with the lingering
++++++++++++scent
of rooms as familiar
as the breath of ephemera,

~

hints of who’d lived there
in corners, on walls,
++++++++++++everywhere
except in the standing mirror,
which is blank.

 

—

 

Allison Funk is the author of five books of poems, including her most recent, Wonder Rooms (Free Verse Editions of Parlor Press, 2015). The recipient of a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, she is Professor Emerita at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.