The Present Progressive
Somewhere a phone is ringing and ringing
and I am pacing the house’s many stacked rooms
and I am pacing the house’s many stacked rooms
it’s like to actually just lay here
what would happen! this refusal
what would happen! this refusal
a vegetable’s soft bitterness against the generally agreed-upon outcome
that surely one’s assembled reality will collapse
that surely one’s assembled reality will collapse
without its scaffolding built
of frantic labor and fear
of frantic labor and fear
somewhere else a man will not stop explaining things
and I am holding my head
and I am holding my head
fragmented as I am like a city
trying to remember what I wanted to remember
trying to remember what I wanted to remember
under the pink midday sun
a yellow bicycle basket full of lemons
a yellow bicycle basket full of lemons
and ringing lassos the day the actions themselves resembling
the gerunds and the participles
the gerunds and the participles
tired balloons trailing through
the industrial land
the industrial land
and I do not want this ugly grammar a shadow
dragging across all the emptied images
dragging across all the emptied images
which I leave behind
naming them idleness
naming them idleness
it’s exhausting always this question of what
are you doing here
are you doing here
biography
ANSLEY CLARK is a writer and teacher living in Seattle. Her work has appeared in Crazyhorse, Hobart, Black Warrior Review, Colorado Review, and elsewhere. She has an MFA in poetry from the University of Colorado and is currently earning a master’s in literacy and language from the University of Washington.