Mary Buchinger

[selections from The Transformation of Material Things]

a baby cries

& I turn to see
what’s the matter

a woman
robed in blue

climbs steep
cellar stairs

emerges beside me
into grey morning air

the wailing baby
cradled in her arms

that’s her spiritual cry
the woman explains

& yes I feel it
scrape inside

After I wash the dishes
I turn off the kitchen light
& everything is dark

It is a soft darkness
with sharp edges

I close my eyes to call to mind
the map of this place
the relationships of objects
myself in this space

I feel my way

I know there are others somewhere
in another part of the house
sitting in a bright-lit room
laughing together

I make my way toward
where I imagine them to be

Mary Buchinger, author of e i n f ü h l u n g/in feeling (2018), Aerialist (2015), and Roomful of Sparrows (2008), and President of the New England Poetry Club, teaches at MCPHS University in Boston; her work has appeared in AGNI, DIAGRAM, Gargoyle, Nimrod, Salamander, Slice, and elsewhere.