42. The Mulling

 

the word of poem | of the word poem

a poet’s worth | something of song

but broken | the skin off the knee

to see inside our bloodiness | all the

arrangements of the body | terror of

death | alignment of utensils upon

the dining table | so we can follow

the pattern of eating | all on the out

side to become | all of the inside

the word works this way | inscrutable

eating us from the inside | out

we see the outline of | the crow as

the crow itself | black silhouette

against black sky | the rain rains

cold and dark | and dark and wet

we accept as evidence the | whispering

of crows | we climb into branches of

mulberry to eat its insipid fruit | hot

summer humidity drenches us in sweat

we have come to smell | the poem

 

we fight our life with | the poems we

have | the poems we are born with

slipping from darkness | to bright

the radiance of bright | of chaos

of the cold hospital air on our skin

we cry | in joy | of having lost the

comfort and security of | life as

a comma | rolled into ourself

human ouroboros | a human bean

slowly flattened | by life outside

we cry | we sleep | we learn

to wonder | break the glass to

multiply the light | I think yet

forget | days laid out as stones

the blunder of being | in the face

of nothingness | we drink in the

night | to engender the sun | what

grows great and green above us

 

parables abound of | human nadir

and zenith | fables replicate humans

as more intelligent animals | above

us the stars | we read to reveal the

present | gift of given insight | we

turn to the sound | to see | the moon

change to fingernail | the constellations

to prophesy | burden me with word

encumber me with | meaning | what

piece of tomorrow | belongs to today?

have we found | the pattern to this

game? | to wake to work to eat to

sleep | to wake to sleep | to sleep to

wake | one in a line with the others

motion of purpose | purpose of move

ment | we move to make | to see

to know | we sleep to dream | to make

to guess | to believe | as if belief

were real as a rock | hit against a head

hard enough to crack | and to show it