SAM SEARLE lives and works in Wellington. She is currently enrolled in the Iowa Workshop (Poetry) at the International Institute of Modern Letters.


       O animator

       Grant me
       your patience   the frame
       by   frame way
       you created this blue dog from nothing
       but clay   your hands   a camera

       your attention
       to rhythm   to the rhythm
       of the train   the train the blue dog rides in
       the train with the window
       that shifts and shapes into a Rothko
       painting   a rectangle   yellow
       vibrating
       at the exact frequency
       needed to make
       a woman   to make a woman
       stop   motion
       sit on the floor of the gallery
       weep   at the great blurry
       block

       Spare me some
       imagination   that grasp
       on realism   you so easily let
       slip   O minor goddess
       of plasticine   benign
       Doctor Frankenstein
       you give life to what’s never been
       never will be
       a dog on a train   a blue dog
       in a dream   of a painting
       his head   floating
       from his malleable body
       each move   bark   blink
       your work