a string
of tedious dreams
like trying to get back
to my office.
I head
back in
to clear it
out,
my head
PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
1
What are your interests?
I’m interested in the way
interest
creates finitude.
Differently translated,
“in choosing itself,
existing being
closes a circuit.”
Now every sixteen seconds,
the engine will pass the brakeman
with his arm always raised
beside the empty station.
2
What do you want to do?
All impulses come
from the gods,
as we know,
and lead god knows where,
though each hero
has her own set
of god-given epithets,
“Insta-bright”
and
“All-dimming”
MY LOVE
1
As love settles briefly
on a houseplant,
a shoe,
and with steady purpose
keeps moving
until it climbs the wall,
the sun
2
They say hate is love
turned sour
because it was unwelcome
where it paused.
More often, love’s worn thin
by wrapping itself
around unwieldy things
3
Let our eyelids
lie flat
and spread
like lily pads
beside themselves
on a murky pond
TEST
This is only a test,
I was told often.
I was trying
to count down
to you.
Five pointed leaves.
Five-petaled flowers.
Starfish.
I had been cautioned
not to point.
Feats of balance
might be the solution.
Perky sepals
back-combed
around the flower’s
sticky note.
GUISES
I come up
again and again
as if from the ground,
as if in a dream,
see that I’m naked
and cover myself
in a likeness,
oh Lord,
“iconic.”
As if a pebble
could speak for a cave
about “desire”
from a mile off
DISTRIBUTION
You think category
isn’t sexy, isn’t
sex. Seems you’re wrong.
Don’t worry. We have
dozens of them, each revamping
the last. A thing
must be recognizable
in
