Poem

Informing Dynamics

Informing Dynamics

To hear the poet read “Informing Dynamics,” click here.

We don’t live near a stream, but now we do:
the water slipping down the side of the street

would shame many a river with a big name
inscribed on space shots, with a history, with

fish; three or four inches this morning and
more coming: a flotation medium rising in the

basement, alas, a mop and bucket my squeezing
remedy: and Phyllis off at a funeral:

put down in this much water, one could drown;
at least, get wet: but what does the body

care that has no spirit in it: it has already
drowned in a medium sleep pales before: and

the spirit, even: it was just a bit of
electricity firing off joints and nets: off,

it isn’t there anymore: the body, though, is
but it has taken on the temperature of the

ground and sees no difference in itself: oh,
but the difference to some! a lifetime’s

worth of getting on with life: it is just that
quick cut between getting our monographs

published about horse fever and keeping the drain
free below the rainspout and putting a little

aside for the kids’ education and–BOP–gone:
I have so much trouble with that edge: the

day-to-day plunged into eternity: the look
back then from eternity to the day-to-day:

what was it all about, what was the use, how
did we get so interested, so worried, so

anxious: I say, meaning cannot be criticized
by time: where does time get off: while there

is meaning: when anything has served its purpose
it might as well be abandoned, even meaning:

but meaning is really good while it lasts: too
bad you can’t store it up anywhere for a download.