37. The Present Past

a. art

abstr. & cncrt

or floating
as a representation of what you know
the pressure of the palette on the eye

show Mark
the painting


apple in place of an eye
maybe he’s a chola with that hat

abstraction as a representation of
the manner in which light hits the surface of an object

the infinite dexterity of the eye
working as the eye works

a mind does best what it doesn’t know it does

or

show Mark
to everyone


at first he appears to be a straightforward example of a human
he even has hair

but the color is wrong
a circus of citrus

and he wears as he reads in the courtyard a tie
the square representing restricted order and venue of human activity

it is only in the movement of his finger that they realize it

begin the being

even fruit is real and ripe
orchestral in colors of merging and diverging tint

meaning in a human is not just the expression
of a word squeezing out of the body at the sphincter of the mouth

only the pressure of constriction produces the music
friction’s required for the sound of it even down the long tube of human voice

[the pause in the poem is for effect]

imagine as a requirement of your eyes

colors in the shapes reflecting nature as naturally perceived
the concrete outlines of flesh and fur and flower and flow

imagine again

colors in the shapes of human imagination
mind as matter and shapes as expression beyond sight

imaginimage


b. archives

the body of our knowledge is not milk and blood
the body of our knowledge is trapped visions and voices

give us unto this day as a token for eternity a changeless word
acrobat of the least voice and required of no air

remanded to the prison of the page or the picture
or being the electric voice of the dead

do you have in hand the holographic letter
three-dimensional in the fact of its presence as form

have you in time and across saved the present pulse of the word
capturing that current that replicates human body

pulse as impulse
impelled and pulled

memory is an act of edition
removal to the core

segregation of the forgettable into forgotten
memorable into membered thus allowed the body to exist

the palm of your hand as a record of the past
false code for the future

being yourself as a rememberer
of self and other
and the descant past

the echoes of selves


c. are

yes you

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