Lisa Hutton - Work

Conversations with Myself

sometimes
I would like to deconstruct my bridges
stop returning phone calls
until there were no more messages
let coral palaces
fall
let foam and water dissolve me with them
why do I
I could hold my energy back
and watch it all burn off with a sun of change
disconnected and disaffected
weary
how to proceed at these times
when the future has lost its potency
it becomes a fanciful day dream
picked up and put down in my spare time
like a book
the past is not a coral palace
it is the sea
touching everything
reflecting, coloring, nourishing, destroying
here the light filters through
there it will never reach
they are coral
elaborate, beautiful, loved, temporary
the water dissolves them
the shores reclaim them
new figures form that we may not discern

the foothills were a beautiful construction on a desolate shore
they are your monument
and my sweet memory
the coyotes sing your hymn
though I will never hear it again
our bridges are in the air
and under the sea
where the light filters through
no need to repair or tear down
but what of the others
is it laziness or grief that makes me say it