Someone has already been here
Always, even if you are still
Unaware of her presence.
You are never alone, even
When you are alone, in awe
On a mountain cliff’s edge.
Someone has been here—
Even if only in imagination
Someone has been where you go.
Everyone you have met—
Everyone you have read—
Everyone, even the slightest touch
Has always already existed
Inside you now, and forever.
(October 26, 2018)
“She is a forgery.”
–Anne Carson
since
she fears
she will be
discovered
as
so much
less
then she appears,
she revises
her lines,
practices
improvisations;
until,
she vanishes.
(October 23, 2018)
There is nothing here, she says
holding out her heart.
He demurs in silence and
refuses to speak his part.
No matter, she improvises,
each stone’s cut smooth…
…and takes its place, he smiles,
like fate into its groove.
There are no walls, she says,
when nothing’s to divide.
The walls are real, he says,
everyone has something to hide.
Again, she offers her heart;
and, he has forgotten his part
(October 21, 2018)
I have a sarcophagus
To hide within:
No key holes
Through which to spy,
Nor allow spider
Silk strands of light.
I keep secrets
From myself there.
Under interrogation,
I will not confess
What I know—
When I am alone,
And frightened,
I go into its dark.
(October 17, 2018)
He picks up a rock,
He puts it down.
He picks up a rock,
He puts it down.
He tells himself:
Don’t pick it up;
He picks up the rock,
He puts it down.
He tells himself
He is stupid—
He tells himself
Not to say such things.
He tells himself
He is stupid
For saying such things,
Then says them again.
He tells himself
Don’t pick it up.
He picks up the rock,
And puts it down.
(October 15, 2018)
As laconic waves lap the shore,
Children’s laughter catches the breeze;
And seagulls’ cries pierce the sky.
In the moment before it happens,
No one notices the clouds overhead
Casting shadows on the ground.
Recently, I saw an old photograph—
A typical summer beach scene:
Two young blonde women lean over
A railing in modest bathing suits.
They look out over the crowded beach
Toward the soft clouds on the horizon.
Everyone seems happy. Everyone
Exists in the moment, oblivious
To the candid moment they are in.
The caption reads: Germany, 1936.
It could have been any day;
It could have been today.
*(historical note: Dachau opened in March, 1933)
(October 15, 2018)
