Incident Report
Ruben Mita
Published on
page 30 of Tarot #6
(June 2023)
the rat took our tomatoes
the rain fell
on the Cook Strait,
crying, crying, crying
big rat,
soft and important
ate our tomatoes
looking at the attractive stained glass window
doesn’t know about proteins
doesn’t even have a name
heavy-minded, the flies
go unmasked around the open room
along the rat’s fur,
water filtered through soil
trickled down to soil
the rat circled his topic
his words gave nothing away
humus, phosphor, Antarctic rain
gather up, down, up
he stole our tomatoes
and I did not know what he meant
The Gap in the Window
Ruben Mita
Published on
page 31 of Tarot #6
(June 2023)
“Crack the window” she said and he did and the gap in the window was a gap,
not a crack, and the gap was the desert between the divided worlds
of the lichen and spiders and borer of the great window.
The air that passed in good terms through the gap in the window
was good air and it made the room shiver with pleasure,
it raised goosebumps on the grey walls and this was the song
of the gap in the window, the song that chilled
her bare elbow and caused her to say, “Close the window, will you?”
He brought down the top of the window and the gap in the window
screamed and screamed every inch of the way and he lay down on the sofa-bed
and she took the earmuffs down from a hook on the wall and
with a steely jaw finished the job.