cummings & goings

"Laces knotted so savagely tight fingers and foreheads throb coming up; it’s so we remember that falling is in each step." ODO 180 080

1

  under a modest calliope

tap your feet, tap the sustain

that twinkles like gypsum

under the tightrope

  nowhere in this fabric

sun finds punctures

to tilt midday’s columns

of light on intimacies

gentle circus animal

has forgiven at what cost

  has learned to lift its head

  under your revered sole

before the plié, toe

and that swift song on

the banks of the low river

2

  do you know the words

we use to describe calls

of birds? the way a falcon

has so little cello in its swooping timbre

  symphony, sound together

in a bunched root lace

  thinning rhythms we

draped over civilization

since genesis condensed

on the sweating glass

  of all waters:

the slow rise and shift

of pickaxes sparking in mines

and, unlistenable, accumulations

  of last breaths. who will

record their entire life first?

if it is Piper, are we all Piper then

  is listening measured in possible