Nance Van Winckel

Desultory Logic

The logic named names and said it was hungry.

The logic watched us watch it back.

The logic had a dog that died. The logic kept the bone.

The logic inched towards the window sill.

The logic needed copper wiring, a cool dark, and different
measurements, new measurers.

The logic rested on the sill.

The logic expected applause, rejected laughter.

The logic needed to pee, needed more hands, taller ladders.

The logic had the jump’s number.

Nance Van Winckel’s ninth poetry collection, The Many Beds of Martha Washington, is just out with the Pacific Northwest Poetry Series/Lynx House Press. She's also published a book of visual poems with Pleiades Press (2016) and five books of fiction, most recently Ever Yrs, a novel in the form of a scrapbook (Twisted Road Publications, 2014). The recipient of two NEA fellowships, the Washington State Book Award, a Paterson Fiction Prize, Poetry Society of America's Gordon Barber Poetry Award, a Christopher Isherwood Fellowship, and three Pushcart Prizes, Nance teaches in Vermont College’s MFA Program and lives in Spokane, Washington. Her author website is: nancevanwinckel.com; her visual poetry website is photoemsbynancevanwinckel.zenfolio.com