Vessel

She has become as a bowl:
rounded clay, plangent,
worn from continuous pouring.

She has given and encompassed
eddies of chicken dinners,
knotted shoelaces, cloched recoveries.

Her back bows from the circle
her arms must make as carefully
she holds the world,

so much water that shifts
and streams, glows silver or dark
in her, and she clenches
her teeth to spill not one drop.