1
unencumbered
between words
its arbitrary nature breaks
like synapse
spitting bits of information
from finger tip
to brain move
or die in pain
words reflect traces
like pictures
of bubble chamber’s particles
a silent passage
ion’s life spans split
to form from quarks of sound
to trail definition
no longer found
at word’s end
2
the vagary of intervocalic r’s ululations
slip like glaciers across the geography
mountains ground into valleys
standards set by the sounds
of a stuttering elite
from tight interdental vibrations
to the wet chokes of distant glottal stops
a race emerges gurgling
a baby slides from the womb
one lone wail
widens the world
with nascent definition
3
the widening arms of galactic spirals
embrace space
a tongue surrounds sounds
a nest sits tight in tessellating trees
balanced between branches
bending like water over rocks
or air fired by lungs
tempered by throat
molded then refined
to fit soft lips
to pull the helix
into meaning
warmly around the body
quivering between sounds
uttered by all
4
breath catches on sound
stumbles through phoneme
an epic of history–
clotted blood and laws for meaning
yet
the written word
the spoken word
shore nothing
no grammar no syntax no links
between lines scratched in bone
and the vibrations released
closed off by throats–
clogged with sand
eyes cannot read
the parched symbols
on the crumbling page
5
the pen tip dips ink across paper
calligraphic swathes of black
direct us
inward
outward
the spiral descent
the twisted ascent
information crosses
detaches reforms
performs its duty
with change
arbitrary regulation
ink blood genes words
control blurs
vision fluxes
about the pen’s nib
6
somnambulant
we weave on
an undulant path
rocks are water
trees birds blur
into buildings blur
into rubble
so we pray
mumble words
recite words
cite formulas
a prescription
a description
of a world we want
only when without
so we chant
chant syllables past consonants
vowels change into truer vowels
to change the word
to change the world
(circa 1990-1994, from If This is a Comedy, Then Why Aren’t We Laughing)
subtext 