All the Old Weapons

Who's the one who said it? All the old weapons
poems lay down, bladelessly or just rusty
fall to prose in paragraphs safe as houses.
             (Lock up the gun case.)

Here beside me pick out the weapons once you
used to slice through language or love. Achilles,
tent the blanket round us and heal these tenden-
             cies past believing.

Ancient rhythm, cardiac wisdom beating
punctuates the body with rhyme and reason.
Silence treats us equally, linking pulses.
             I hear your blood flow.

I'm the reliquary whose artist carved her
center's empty space to hold something sacred,
petrified as the bog-heart buried ages
             I don't remember.

Absinthe, teardrop, water of life I may be
only drinking all that I know of useful,
bottles, battles, settlements, as I watch us
             learning the language.

In Praise of Wobbly Tables

The restaurant's pristine. He leads you in,
all gentlemanly elbows, to your seat.
Warm light refracts the crystal vases' keep
of flowers you could never afford to buy.
The waiter recommends his favorite wine.
The busboy pours the water and the glass
beads up just like the nervous sweat you feel
on dates with strangers.

                                      This one's promising:
you like the way he asks about your life
and doesn't vilify his former wife.
You sink into it, scotch and tweed his voice,
the wine's delicious, an excellent choice,
you let him order appetizers. Right—
then suddenly he takes a dive, below
the tablecloth (what is he doing?
is he a fetishist going for your toes?)

The table's slightly crooked, can't you see?
He'll fix it, just a minute, pulling out
a panoply of matchbooks, papers, clips.
Give me just a second and I'll fix it—
The table lurches with his ministrations,
a tiny plume of wine flies from your glass,
but down below he hears no protestations.

At last. He rises, straightens up his tie.
Much better now, he winks. I like it stable.
But now you're shaken, sitting, wondering:
if he can't take the tiniest of wobbles,
this gorgeous restaurant, the best of tables,
what will he do when plate tectonics shifts
between you, when that certain earthquake hits?