by JR Carpenter
confused as ever about boundaries
between where weather starts
and where stone ends
what’s mist and what’s muck in the lane
what’s cloud and what’s falling
sky into pond, into puddle
what’s a hot flush. what’s a cold sweat
what’s a Northwest wind cutting
through wool and wellingtons
bounding down a steep path
edging a porous border
between moss and boulder
how is this called drystone
this wall of green leaning
towards living, breathing
and how is this sky opening
part mouth, and part spit
polishing river stones slick
bewildering, this blurring
between fresh wet rushing
and fresh wet falling
and what’s this weathering revealing
this opening, widening, a rent in time
between river-recent and ocean-ancient
a dull gleam of limestone
disturbed by an odd cobble
pocked white with coral fossil
confounding boundaries
between what’s animal
and what’s mineral
and how is moss also part mineral
part wet, made colour
part air, made feather
part chemical, this devouring
infinitesimal, this weathering
all the winter stones are rain
J. R. Carpenter is an artist, writer, and researcher working across performance, print, and digital media. Her web-based work The Gathering Cloud won the New Media Writing Prize 2016. Her collection An Ocean of Static was highly commended by the Forward Prizes 2018. Her collection This is a Picture of Wind was named one of The Guardian’s best poetry books of 2020. Her new collection The Pleasure of the Coast is out now from Pamenar Press. https://luckysoap.com
Something Other 