Seismology

By: Meredith Noseworthy

 

You are good at things with sugar and things,
he says to me when I’ve baked this many
of them, left them to cool, balanced plates
on every unbalanceable surface. Before, when

we walked to the burnt-away house,
we didn’t speak. The trouble’s

always in the measuring out—portions spilt
on the table, with one shorter leg. Always

in trying to be precise: a hand will slip

and when things fall they can’t
be undone. He draws in the flour.
In that dark, he tells me earthquakes

are like buttons popping off, that the trouble is in
the tension of our surfaces. Blackened, thumb-sized

the shingle I took from that day of staring
at what wasn’t ours, will keep.
I collect evidence, write lists. I only know

to fix these little hurts: attend to tension—
the most you can do—to not spill out the water.

 

Meredith Noseworthy is a senior double-majoring in Creative Writing and Theatre at Knox College in Galesburg, IL. Currently, she works as a technical artist in Knox's costume shop, a writing tutor in Knox's Center for Teaching and Learning, and a poetry editor for the campus' literary magazine, Catch. Originally from a one-stop-sign town in Vermont, Noseworthy plans to move to Chicago after her graduation.