ONE MONTH

28


Is this the worst finally
upon us? How much
joy do you think you
can sustain? Why do
this girl’s fingers sway
like pennants when
she talks? From where
issue the hollow forces
of irony? Can I drink
what the throat thinks?
Really? Is now when
what coagulates in mind
finds purchase in heart?
Don’t you have something
worse to do? What’s
wrong with tendering
ambiguity? Can the air
you breathe become
the site of some ecstatic
unraveling? If utopia
linguistically denotes
a place without place
can it have any ethical
stability? Why do these
bilious waves of guilt
winter in my gullet?
Can the movements
toward happiness accrue
in radical environments?
Why is this fallen petal
malingering unnoticed?
Does the mere fact of
living implicate one’s
responsibility to try
dying? Would you all
step a little nearer? Why
does the body insist
on remaining so sure
about the ineptitude
of consciousness? Now
isn’t the succoring
time is it? Where flies
life at such impossible
moments? Does the end
of the month mean
that these words mean
something more? Don’t
the bags in the trees
seem to shudder and
weep today? Wither
fawns this emasculate
cosmology? How much
money does an honest
woman need? Can’t
we just lie in the ribs
of this rusting truck
until the sun comes
up again? Why do we
keep the representations
of our loved ones next
to the representations
of our pecuniary worth
within the folds of some
dead animal’s skin? How
horrific sounds the literal?
If I proffer you my hand
with tidings of humility
will you lead me forth
in this year of blistering
joy? Can you sustain
the amity of my hands?


1


Does each
trouble come
from the fact
that our eyes
lie at the acme
of our face?


2


Is silence speech
that doesn’t quite
reach the surface?
Which one hasn’t
sounded at least
the primary depth
of murder?


3


‘Is the cessation
of pain merely
an impoverished
wish?’ Why do
the many only
remember that
they have a body
when it goes bad?
What percentage
of waking life
should be spent
pursuing spiritual
enlightenment?


4


What does it mean
to call a human
being holy? Is rap
a hymn to rage?
Does this white
smile salvation
light look eerie
with reckoning so
close? Who loves
you like a slave?