Maureen Owen
Phyllis Wat
    Postcard Collaborations

Hieroglyphic Home

The foot was in the four-story tower   

a courtyard consisted of a simple labyrinth owl and horned viper 

reed leaf bathrooms   of  folded cloth   &     quail chick powder 
water in a pool occupied a damp living room
Door bolt bedroom on the second floor   with mat, basket and arm

tables  chanting like hills

Many of the lion chairs were threadbare 
a vulture atop several free-standing wooden cabinets
fireplace forming  a mouth

an empty pot stand         a piano player's hand
family portraits of cobra, candlestick, and loaf        dating
from the dim rope & knotted rope into mid-20th century

many of the rooms were rather dark

Owen

My life in Hieroglyphs I own three ropes, one with a loop at each end, one a candlewick, and one that is knotted that is all my ropes, and one is a light I have a mouth, a loaf, water water in a pool, a courtyard, a mat I have a door bolt with folded cloth and basket with my hand, arm and foot I set out for the hill, I do not say Nature I call it horned viper or cobra, owl or vulture, or lion and the quail chick is part of my tally three birds, two snakes, one mammal add to this, placenta—sheen of mortality and the reed leaf I need to write, to remember, to resist Wat