perdu lying hidden, disguised. one who acts as a watcher or scout
perdure to continue, endure, last on
The two are begun
They are shaving ends of sticks
The two are discussing seeds
They are specimens
Glass does not burn but the hillside does
The two are a vine’s exhalation
________
drum accompaniment
Then follow wood then water, then stones and metals, slow to heat
bbi-due-rrhuh-jut-dah askew leaning twisted
In the bowels and studies of inferiors
Seaweed stench
“devote”
“wonder”
________
[when my father died and left me nothing]
[this is how I speak]
________
“helicopters hover”
“embassy compound”
Relative fence, cling fence
Someone is hiding an infant
Fish with two tails
Fish with two heads
Indigestible over days and days
Unfurled silver maple is a red burnish
________
War is there and travel
The same is my sister, brothers, and mother
The father is thrush, white at birth and at dusk
Father is burying ground cool to the touch
This is some color but what color is it
“left their homes after two solid days of attacks”
“they had stayed to take care of their cow”
“the extreme cold froze medicine”
“religion and capitalism intersect in the muddy village twenty miles north of”
________
cabbage looper moth
sugarcane stalk borer
What started then and ate through most of a decade
Contralto: the affliction is very near—and there is no one to help
Sad Sack places the dead dog around her shoulders—weeds higher than her head
Standing as standing might
________
Recitative
“I have dissected more than ten human bodies, destroying all the various members
“and removing the minutest particles of flesh which surrounded these veins, without causing
“any effusion of blood ... and as one single body did not suffice for so long a time,
“it was necessary to proceed by stages with so many bodies as would render my knowledge complete
The Notebooks, da Vinci
________
At least 250,000 acres of cotton and fruit crops are under immediate
threat from the huge swarm of locusts which have invaded the southern
plain from the Pamir Mountains
Roving simians have ripped the curtains off polling booths and pushed
some officials preparing for parliamentary elections
In southwest and south central Kansas the worst condition is plants
stunted or killed off by extremely dry soil. Adding to farmers’ woes are
infestations of green bugs and brown wheat mites
Three villages were overrun by thousands of toads, and farmers in the
area reportedly feel that the onslaught is a sign of impending tragedy.
Children are said to be terrified by the toads and unable to sleep. The
main road connecting the region with La Pas is coated with a thick layer
of dead toads and the stench is said to be unbearable.
________
“peace-keeping troops”
“tanks beneath the windows”
The inside of someone else’s dwelling visible—a table and some chairs.
You start to count one, two, three, four ... until the explosion is near your neighborhood. You can guess the position of mortar by this count ing and try to find a safe place.
If the windows are gone, weak plastic is taped up but the strong wind comes and we stay awake.
In this South Cholla Province where all vehicle had been confisticated, we resorted to walking, the method of travel of the Yi Dynasty. We reverted back 300 years.
Kwangju, 1980
It’s the same to be in the house, at the shelter or anywhere. There is no safe place. When we have no electricity, we are sitting in the dark and we know what life looked like before Christ.
Sarajevo, 1992
________
The central organizing myth of comprehensive knowledge
Bent as light might bend
The openings in the human body
The age that one is
I will be my mother’s age also
Color of robin’s egg against spring grass