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dragonfly and hummingbird · or the shadow
beside the object of your adoration : these then are the choices
( or you perceive
yourself as a crane )
you are a lutenist · the sunlight
remains orange ·
its perimeters defined by freezing
this is a fence based neither on exclusion or introversion · but on hue
a hue
you measure in years ·
the dilution appearing upon the body
as if it had consumed an ever-receding horizon
this · of course · is where you stand :
beneath a canopy of receding · for sacrality or comfort · believe it a hue or ·
in desperation · a meaning
there are windows
which do not open into the soul but away ·
these are your exit · name them : lithic conglomerate or forest litter :
minute distillation of matter
( you are merely another organism
synthesizing light ·
the trees are red · the sky white )
this is the white symphony :
enough metals in the brain to make the nerves sing · or the room turgid
this is your vocation :
to define your deficits : lifetime of askance apprehension ; ear blow out of pitch :
a projectile which the yellow autumn blossoms deflect
perhaps there were winds in that music ;
perhaps there was a choir
other than ravens directing the falling leaves ;
perhaps there was a pure
momentum like a single bubble ascending
from the lake’s black mud
probably not ·
yet the seasons continue to rachet · species of delerium
perhaps there were other methods to contradict this unravelling —
spindle or nomenclature —
flesh fraying off · any sleeve · around the bewildered soul
probably not · then who is the infant that sits down ·
always astonished · in the puddle of melted ice
no one · surely
the plan was to capture something beautiful :
voice of a scarlet bird ; bit of crystal from a star ;
even an ideal human being
( doll of a god fabricated from corn husks
is adequate ) · these were elusive ·
true · yet there were the flute-toned whistles of elk seemingly brittle in the fog ·
there were even minute black beaks
picked up from the forest floor ·
even beautiful eyes
why is your face coated with graphite ? a gilding of that expression?
even such a gesture is futile :
there is sobbing or drunkeness or icestorms
even that night-blackened ribbon of ice terminates above some white sea
where you will · perhaps · always fall
into such notions
of disease ; even now you believe yourself a numeral
the ninth · as in a white note · the singing always about shame
here you should disembark · forsaking
even this fragile shuck ; this shameless combustion
then slippage or wreckage · the field is fair ; course clear ·
some say even the notation is lost or defaced
a transmigration of the ideate
to the embodied (ceramics of teeth)
and dissolution (silt) moves
tangentially across the cliff wall untethered to person · thus (sleet) arrived
you : dismembered
relic of memory (heron impassive) ·
the bell or voice · always calling · the way · every way unmarked ·
each song sephardic (or sleep)
this rope
upon which you are strung is a road · confused · ambiguous ·
always arriving at any paradise
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