Tuesday poem #585 : Megan Nichols : The Object

 

 

It seems obvious now: the handles
aren’t attached to the cups the day
they are thrown. They are made
separately from the vessel and left
to dry, though not completely.

When the handles and cups are
leatherhard, you score them
in a frantic crosshatch then mix
water into clay, which makes slip,
to use as glue. The newly joined
are left again to dry, then fired,
then glazed, then fired once more.

In the end, you cannot imagine
the mug having ever existed
in any other way. The object
is fluid; the handle is a swan’s
neck, curving downward
to drink from its own reflection.

 

 

 

Megan Nichols is the author of the chapbook Animal Unfit (Belle Point Press, 2023). Her poems have appeared in Iron Horse Literary Review, The Threepenny Review, Frontier Poetry and elsewhere. She hosts the podcast What We Aim To Do.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan