Mistral

By Lisa Williams

The wind is not your companion.

Nor is it whispering anything to you.

Nor is it not whispering.

It is not a transparent, invisible thread.

It is not a rhythm undenied.

It takes the pine tree on its way and takes it

to the outer reaches of tree

so all its needles bend shaking.

It can exact the opposite

of what things are known for

but only partly.

When it is over you can best imagine it—

Lying, just a cat in a cage.

It pushed the latches but not for truth.

Inside no different.

Math to its whim.

You couldn’t phrase its body,

shape, when

it comes, out of a time, and encounters

and countering and.

Lisa Williams has published two books of poems: The Hammered Dulcimer and Woman Reading to the Sea. Her third book of poems, Gazelle in the House, is forthcoming from New Issues Press in March of 2014. She teaches at Centre College.