CHARM FOR A NEW HOUSE

In March the sun turned north, across
Your kitchen table. By April may it unfurl
Leaves of ivy to toss upon the wall
You look at every day. May weeds and moss
Rage on the dormer below and may you take
The trouble to angle a look from where you sit.
Then may their lives damn all your fears to death.
May cats in heat howl briefly and one rung
Lower on the ladder of desire if they sin
In your yard at all. May they never satisfy
Their hearts’ heat with birds. May everything
That prowls beneath your gaze live safe, live long,
And may you understand that their strengths lie
In them because you looked.
May what you see
Within, your rugs, your books, your pictures, take
You welcome, into them. May the brown and blue
Still life on your wall be still each time you look
In its own colors. May each thing come back.
May each be true, the keys, the shirts, each shoe,
Your plants and spoons in their own shapes. And may
The blue stripe that circles your crockery bowl
Charm it from flaws as this spell charms away
Whatever can cause your heart to crack and fail.