Fire escape slats
powdered stark
by snow
night’s been
turned over
spadeful of soil
dawn coughs
but I’m slowly getting better
at less
fork down
to one tine
I watch the tug of crust
between two finches
seedbreakers
craw adaptors
neither better nor worse
an interval works
toward permanence
and I pinch on
a talisman
lamp
light at human scale
oiling the simple
machine
winter
fulcrum I lever
breath against
Andrew Seguin is the author of
The Room in Which I Work (Omnidawn 2017) and co-translator, with Pierre Mabille, of the first French edition of Josef Albers's
Poems and Drawings (Editions Unes/Josef and Anni Albers Foundation 2021).