Exterminating Angel Press

Creative Solutions for Practical Idealists.

Marissa Bell Toffoli

Long Division.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli.

 

Laughter like wind chimes,
how the sound carries.
You can hear the party
going on past the fence–
were we there?
When it was our turn,
did we carry on so?

Summon that feeling
of weightlessness, invincibility.
Overshadowed now
by the wings of time.
Consider the calendar
by weeks and it overwhelms.
Invisibility has greater appeal
than it used to. By days?
Either way, a fraction
of a year, of a life–

We can divide our space,
divide our time,
measure how we like.
A long division, yet no distance
between past and present.

Let me be wholly happy
here on the patio swing.
Leaves waiting to be raked,
toy-strewn yard, laundry stacked inside,
train track snaking through the dining room,
pencil-scratched long division at the table.
How now, dear mess? Dear muse?

How to claim what a life amounts to?
The sum of our amusements
across all our days over time left.
A remainder yet unknown.

Time’s daughter rings the chimes again,
and our yard sings a song unto itself.

A Crook in the Rain.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. There is too much forgetting. I hold my breath as if it will hold everything– press pause for us. An alarm chimes, the laundry is done. A car beeps in the distance, traffic moves on. I chide myself, don’t let the day’s distractions lead. Through the kitchen window, I pocket another […]

Advice.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Easy to give, hard to take. I’m collecting wise words like buttons in a jar. Shook up– how they rattle before settling in. Pick one, test the weight of it in your hand. Try another, try them all. Hem and haw, and sew a new design. Plan for things to go […]

Aside.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Field of infinite whispers. Supple blades of pale sage,
the color of cat eyes. How they widen / wink in sunlight. It’s not always clear what is real. The past is ever present / now slips out from under us. Day at the shore, look out for the horizon. Memory traces a […]

Springtime Walk.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Your shadow catches mine, stretches long up the sidewalk, plays hide and seek in patchy sunshine. You turn a falling leaf into a butterfly. But you can’t pick the neighbors’ spring gardens clean. Look how young flowers welcome sun and rain. They bend, heavy under the water weight until they feel […]

Compromise with the Air.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. The edge of the world glows in the evening, enchants city buildings. Take in the view from on high. Gossamer bridges span dappled bay water, the skyline floats above foundations. You stand like a lighthouse, rigid with responsibility, signaling endlessly from your precipice. Watch as a crow swoops through the scene. […]

A Holding Undone.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. So, we speak of the past and the passed in whispers for their sake and our own; swing open the hinges of our chests offer flight to memory, aghast, we release these semiprecious stones. We speak well of the passed and the past afraid to let on when we feel pissed, […]

Chain Link.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli.   Hook and line. Story reels me in though not mine to speak of. Fishing for adventure. Bravery by way of being an accomplice. I’ve stolen the facts. They worked inside me in stealth, now I’ll show you how I intend to make your life my own. As if it could […]

In Anger.

by

by Marissa Bell Toffoli. Blood-orange thoughts I wished weren’t in me escape. Lashing caprices churn the sea around us. My voice goes rough and salty. Grace ceases. Personal debris— gathered, unspoken, unmerciful— rises in the swells, releases when there’s nowhere to flee. Our every deficiency floats on, increases until we find ourselves. Still here. Set […]