1, 2, 3

1.
Say and then wrong
or step further than willingly go: I have said to friend what cannot
just stop thinking.
Walk while thinking by river do not prefer this way I am leading.

Not wanting to lead this way causes adhesive am walking
focus on river where I am less wrong. River won’t move, it can just be
addressed

can river replace the friend situation?
No you have already said I am not a perspective.

2.
Why doesn’t river count as perspective
prefer it to friend who says there is a gulf between me and you
who have not my perspective. The river does not say its perspective.
Do not believe

another gets say. River partakes of my perspective
since onto an object can be projected
it does partake. What I say is needed:

the river be friend. This is true because river keeps saying
I do not agree there is a gulf.

3.
The river has nothing to do with the person who blames
my need for her friendship. I attribute to river
the saying: it’s better to stay

with sensory situation that happens including the layer you
add: conversation with friend
who causes

emotion who now is no longer.
River says you are not honest in friendship, not honest to river,
step in to walk by.

Penance

The two African violets open in morning. There are birds on the dishcloth black-and-yellow smeared to look green. I plan to make pie

I have the downstairs to myself, I’ve betrayed

My friend on the phone did not wish to talk, Aaron is ill

Though violets have faces they droop enlarged at the bottom, do not appear human

Nor I to myself when no one is here through my own fault:

With objects I have sought to replace them, there is no option of being alone

I do not presently make the world better

Amanda Auerbach is an Assistant Professor of English at Catholic University where she teaches literature and creative writing. In addition to her book of poems What Need Have We For Such as We, which was published in 2019 by C&R Press, her poems have appeared in the Paris Review, Kenyon Review, Conjunctions, and Fence.