A HUMAN VELOCITY

Sure I was a molecule
accumulating talk

I came to this wanting
to say something

small about being
with you

an awkwardness beneath gasoline
each weird hospitality flung
into the mouth of a passing bird

I woke refurbishing The Kite Wars
a rabbit, a snake
Korean Dogwood blooming

in my ears
the man loves art because
he is an egoist

in my ears
he is an egoist

Today is something thrown and awaiting

purchase

*****

I was out interviewing clouds, amassing
the notes of a sky pornographer

as patches of the city subnormalized

by fear of fear

like a reef bleaching closed
I took to the streets
looking for a human velocity

thinking of disequilibrium

feeling heavy in the abundance
of summer light

of—this is my favorite name so

far

*****

This is insect speed and we
must be legendary in our hush
corpuses thrumming open

as a patina of grief
corrodes unnoticed in a background
of yesterday’s teeth

This girl is determined to hold onto the geometry

of her love

the newspaper reads tiny coffin moves
scientists to tears
and my extravagances gather

This is deep speed or a dynamism
of the middle

prone

to disappearance
A speed slowed to time outside

culture

in the slick of the thing music