A House

BY JOHNNY RAFTER.

I am building us a house with a spider cellar and a sun attic and a hearth of oak hymns one broken
​windowpane where the cold drafts in a proper table a copper kettle two bedrooms and a den of bones
music spoons paper and pinecones our sprigs and heirloom pills our gloom cushions fraying faded
charms old grief kites the prints and paintings we’ve made corner mold good bread and coffee various
pickled fruits I’ll eat meat again but only thin sliced Italian specialties fishing pole boots and alphabets
a drawer of sharp objects a drawer of smooth stones a drawer of forgotten songs a drawer of cemetery soil
a closet of omens a labyrinth in the kitchen our orchids vibrant one ghost cloaking the border of the
woods a wounded deer the summer doors swinging the brocade of things unearthed always emerging
mothing teeming worming in the fringes with strange uncanny dread and the gems and the candlelight

Please Tell Me

BY JOHNNY RAFTER.

Your smile
The way wax melts
Or how the cold water glass
Calls clear beaded jewels
To refract our kitchen window

I’d like to be as honest and as good as that

The hawk bathing in the storm puddle
The ladybug husk caught in the cobweb
The noon sun cicadas the moon pollen
The conscious swaying kelp and conches
The sudden frog burst in spring

And when we’re just sitting there, watching swans
and shorebirds and the estuary stench wafts over
and there’s traffic on the bridge and it's hard to
Fathom the distance between us and California
And all the simultaneous lives lived and the quick-
withering extinction whittling down our familial bones

I’ll offer you a rosary of smoke

And ask if there’s really any path to follow
or just the crackling happenings
of this huge out of control fire

I’ll say please

Please tell me please
Please tell me what you need to speak
Please tell me what you need
​
To speak and dream this group of dark beads into your heart
Johnny Rafter is a writer of songs and poems from California. His recording project is The Fruit Trees. You can find him on Instagram @johnny.rafter.