Vanilla Construct*

a sonnet

A brittle atmosphere out there
before the silhouette was described
in the steam created from your breath.
There is a way the world comes boiling
right after having been seen,
becomes startled rolling lumen
after having been through your eyes.
And for extra friction
there's a way you sort of lean eager to gather in
the noises the valley dogs make when they start howling.

From a matrix torn from vanilla
another kind of meter may be extracted.


* under certain circumstances, the topical lip ointment marketed under the name CARMEX has been known to smell remarkably like the long capsular fruit of a vanilla plant (esp. Vanilla planifolia) though no such ingredient is used in the formula