The Poetry of Karla Huston | ||
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THE THEORY OF SALT | ||
A tense bond of elements
like a marriage, more soluble in hot than cold water. Some say panic is made of it, the hollow of an armpit bathed in brine, a pocket of sweat and terror: God's wrath became an ochre post, while Lot's wife blazed. Or Morton's cobalt canister, made famous by an umbrella, held by a little girl--her yellow dress tilted under a reign of salt that spins a tumult behind her. Some say salt perks up coffee, soothes sore throats, cleans vases and pots, It removes red wine stains, protects pantyhose, eats fish odors, and cuts rust. And how do we live without it, our bodies forever craving a sprinkle of the sea? Even salary comes from the word-- crystal cakes exchanged as money. Still I wonder how we come to know it, savor its elemental fault, the sweet fury of desire, the measure of a life in a handful of cinder and bone. How do we see clearly through the oceans in our eyes? |
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Previously published in One Trick Pony, Fox Cry Review, online at www.prosetoad.com and in the chapbooks: Flight Patterns, winner of the 2003 Main Street Rag Chapbook Contest, 2003, and Virgins on the Rocks, Parallel Press, 2004.
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