the walls, taut like rubber stretched,
break,
tear as if by design;
images, like blood, pour
from me, at me
in paradox:
You should be
this, you
have been
this, you
came from
this, you
are- – –
in a circle the edge
defines- – -at any time
you are always
here- – –
in curved space you
step away to be
closer to where
you are:
so follow an arc straight
through to a circle
and here you are:
then, now, forever
the center.
the dream concerned a hemorrhage.
the fabric thinned,
the pattern broke into fibers
frayed like water
bursting through a sluice.
my world flowed into the other
like air sliding
through the neck
of a bottle
pouring wine;
each flowed into each.
I was a conduit,
an electric circuit
drawing and discharging
the current of the world.
all life, all death
pulsed through my heart.
like tides
along a continent’s rim,
the universe flowed
into me, then pulled
everything out to sea.
(Circa 1992)
subtext 