Rae Armantrout

ORDERS

Pick up the small green notebook
and put it back down
on the bed.

Scratch your chin,
then your forehead.

“Self-care,” someone says.

Stare at the coffee maker
like it might offer
something more, something
you don’t yet suspect.

Touch your fingertips
together. There.

 Pick up the notebook
and write this.

“Idly,” someone says,
“without purpose or intent.”

Not the meaningless
but the unmeant

 is scary. “Sublime,”
someone said.

RAE ARMANTROUT is the author of numerous books, most recently Go Figure (Wesleyan, 2024) and Finalists (Wesleyan, 2022). Wobble (Wesleyan, 2018), was a National Book Award finalist.