55. The Eucaplytoid

 

 

between death and | assassination

we examine the possibilities | it is all medical

the operation of | the body

intemperance | of the mind [brain]

we list | and list

unstable | but with notes ad infinitum

regarding | our personal situation as

humans | being trapped as we are

on a planet not of our choosing | why here?

we inquire | plaintive

noting fires in the Arctic | the depravity

of those surrendered | to the requirement

to guide us | despite their absence of skills

in this regard | (we might say “his”

in place of “their”) | [do not repeat his name]

terror | horror | repudiation set for the future

we crumble | in the loss

what we have | what we will

what you have | we cry out | with a voice

united | strident | muffled

 

I breathed first | in the west

just over the rise | from the Pacific

my vantage point | west and westward

and westerly more | yet

I almost every time | I moved

east | to Virginia | to Portugal | Canada

Ghana | Morocco | Somalia

or south | to Barbados | Bolivia

yet | yet | I think of myself as

a child of the Pacific | small and insignificant

waiting to move | into the sunset

following the sun | constant

in my | motion

it is a foreign place | but one

familiar to me | a family I

was born into but | whom I didn’t

identify with | in the way I think also

of my actual family | from long gone

but still | alive

I remember | their outlines

 

how do you fare | on that far

side of the continent now | do you recognize

yourself in the palms | the bougainvillea

the scent of eucalyptus? | stems of that

tree now hang | in my shower  

so steam and water | can raise the scent

back into me | my bathroom smells of

the groves of these | I would wander

through | in my childhood

these great giant | and nonnative

plants | how they took to

my home | maybe as I have

to life on this other coast | life away

does this new world of yours | does

it ever | form a connection

with you | have you become part

of it | or do you rest apart

and merely look | back out it

with mild disdain? | or have you

forgotten | where you are?