You confuse
the image of a fungus
with the image of a dick
in my poem
(understandably)
and three days later
a strange toadstool
(white shaft, black cap,
five inches tall)
appears
between the flagstones
in our path
We note
the invisible
web
between fence posts
in which dry leaves
are gently rocked.
Sustained
1
To come to
in the middle
of a vibrato—
an “is”—
that some soprano’s
struggling
to sustain.
2
To be awake
is to discriminate
among birdcalls,
fruits, seeds,
“to work one’s way,”
as they say,
“through.”
3
Just now
breaking
into awareness,
falling forward,
hurtling inland
in all innocence
Border Perfection
1
The days are shorter,
but the light seems to stretch out,
to hark
from a long way off.
Horizons
snap into focus,
while shadows
are distended, smudged.
It’s happening again;
we take
discrepancies
for openings.
2
The sign
that the guy behind me
in the “border protection” line
is demented
is his impatience,
the way he asks
again and again
what we’re waiting for
The Vesicle
1
To our amazement,
when fed on fatty acid,
the vesicle
did not simply grow,
it extended itself
into a filament.
Now the king’s youngest daughter said,
“I wish I had
something like that”—
and the whole vesicle
transformed
into a slender tube
which was quite delicate.
2
Monks
mimed one another’s
squiggles
carefully
by candlelight
as if they thought
creation trailed something,
as if they knew
creation looked like this
from what is
always
the outside.
Exact
Quick, before you die,
describe
the exact shade
of this hotel carpet.
What is the meaning
of the irregular, yellow
spheres, some
hollow,
gathered in patches
on this bedspread?
If you love me,
worship
the objects
I have caused
to represent me
in my absence.
*
Over and over
tiers
of houses spill
pleasantly
down that hillside.
It
might be possible
to count occurrences.
With
It’s well
that things should stir
inconsequentially
around me
like this
patina of shadow,
flicker, whisper,
so that
I can be still.
*
I write things down
to show others
later
or to show myself
that I am not alone with
my experience.
*
“With”
is the word that
comes to mind,
but it’s not
the right word here.