6. Editing out [in] the (Any) Extraneous Matter {Being}

nothing is real | until someone edits it

I have a voice that can speak forever

nothing is true | unless we take part

of it away | and add part | of something

else | to it | a whole does not mean

in isolation | it only carries meaning

we can hold | if it is a fragment

fused to other fragments | reality

isn’t what happens | before us

a thing | word body voice breath

has power only | in context with an

other scrap of the earth | video

film text | you may believe you

hear | my voice | but you only see

it when you hear the | gestures of

my hands | if you are absent you

are made present to | me by the

memory of your face | the intonation

of your words | inside this darkness

in total darkness | everything is one

you may assume | you know the taste

of gin | something from the juniper’s

berry | woodsy | botanicals athwart

botanicals | flavor beyond vodka

yet | the sense it accepts additions

as a natural enhancement | not neat

diverse | multifoliate | every leaf a

new herb | an added layer | these

multiplicities | these possibilities of

experience | you only live | once but

you do not know how long that once

will be | you merge one liquor with

another | the movement of the hand

as it stirs | every particularity of ice

what glass can hold | this concoction

appropriately | whatever nibble

might nudge | another thought as

you eat and drink | how the lighting

affects the liquid | you drink | how

the person beside you does | and why

decontextualized | you are merely | you

disambiguated to the point of isolation

you | exist as a concept | but out of the

range of being understood | there is no-

thing against which | to know you

Jimmy is Jimmy | the absence of Jimmy

is also Jimmy | there is no their they’re

there | the oak cracks and crashes in

heavy wind | the land washes away

and what remains is an absence of

but you have edited yourself into this

reality | you are the husband of

Erin | and you are the father of Archer

you mean and make and fashion and be

because you are | because you are one

piece of a larger complex | without you

the rest recedes into fragments | with

you | you are a tripartite whole | a

symbol of family | hope | perseverance

persistence | and even also | presence