what you eat, and what you breathe
is in bone,
in time, over distance, unsurrendered,
if someone tells you who you aren't
they cannot deny the quiet logic
layered minerals
explain to vein and sinew that
they cannot be sundered
except that it falls to nothing
pools, starkly
the dispersed material will not
remake the world
Thursday, April 25, 2019
ciii.
gather those things,
are leaving,
the thin tissue of myth
gossamer, flying
for fingers, crossing
empty air,
the sky beyond them,
blue or shaded and thick,
click a beat
caught in the ravines, invoke
time in the sun,
city-streets far away, the past
in the mind
are leaving,
the thin tissue of myth
gossamer, flying
for fingers, crossing
empty air,
the sky beyond them,
blue or shaded and thick,
click a beat
caught in the ravines, invoke
time in the sun,
city-streets far away, the past
in the mind
cii
if the sun burns in blooms on the dog-wood
and the lamp hung halfway in the branches
lights them, and glows--then I can say
I'm happy to remember,
fare well where you're going
and the lamp hung halfway in the branches
lights them, and glows--then I can say
I'm happy to remember,
fare well where you're going
Sunday, April 14, 2019
ci.
worn half-down to the bone, the man
leans against the marble
walls of the elevator, how's it going
down there?, I ask,
it's bizarre, he says, and touches a dry
palm to the gray skin of
his forehead, I've never seen anything like
it, it's just surreal, you know?
I can see how you'd say that, I nod, if you're
right in the thick of it, trying to produce
something out of it, the door opens, and
he trudges out into the flickering
light of the hallway, muttering, slumped
still walking, there's a bravery in that
greater than bold-faced cheers, and
colliding visions, greater than a thousand
hands raised to clutch the sky, to clutch:
the carpet with your feet, and walking,
is braver than a thousand voices raised
to fill the roof and square, than feet
in any street you can think of--the quiet
scuff of tired and still walking, pared
down, still thinking, gray-faced and no
sky, the whispered shush to shatter
the fragile violence of vision, the faltering
roar of unmet desire, if you swing it right
flex your knee, hands in your pockets, wise
or weary, you can grind the world that grinds,
shrieking, to halt
leans against the marble
walls of the elevator, how's it going
down there?, I ask,
it's bizarre, he says, and touches a dry
palm to the gray skin of
his forehead, I've never seen anything like
it, it's just surreal, you know?
I can see how you'd say that, I nod, if you're
right in the thick of it, trying to produce
something out of it, the door opens, and
he trudges out into the flickering
light of the hallway, muttering, slumped
still walking, there's a bravery in that
greater than bold-faced cheers, and
colliding visions, greater than a thousand
hands raised to clutch the sky, to clutch:
the carpet with your feet, and walking,
is braver than a thousand voices raised
to fill the roof and square, than feet
in any street you can think of--the quiet
scuff of tired and still walking, pared
down, still thinking, gray-faced and no
sky, the whispered shush to shatter
the fragile violence of vision, the faltering
roar of unmet desire, if you swing it right
flex your knee, hands in your pockets, wise
or weary, you can grind the world that grinds,
shrieking, to halt
Saturday, April 13, 2019
lxxxxix.
the hard buds line the branches,
late--the air melted,
already, and rushes across
the concrete, through the avenues,
and circles by the steps,
this year, spring clutches close
watches gamely, but
huddles like the snow's still
down, firmly
waiting to release its hold
on itself, some wild logic
driven down from the mountains
to catch the catch,
and turn it, clasping, flung
over the basin
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