Sous Rature

 

 

 

                              Lines In Space 

           
                              You will balance              on a great disc

                              on the backs of four elephants      upon a giant tortoise

                              in a nonstop sea               I will surround

                              their graves with stone plantings       

                              by foot       by ear         & then by eye     

                              devoured            a record              a making

                              like fossils of tall flowers                   & generative organs

                              the line is where the light is not                              the line becomes the edge           
                              
                              we are up against           birds           breaking down

                              stones                    all over the roads

 

 

                              Body To World

 

                              Me atop a little wild hill

                              beetles advance           under slow vegetation      

                              the drenched bee descending will be seen

                              as spectral evidence          & each insect a pronoun   

                              & tents will overflow with large mammals        but continue        

                              proceeding        heart stones         writhe inside          brain stones

                              our one chance              per chance        to open on to worlds           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                              Thick Callous           

           
                              Our principal effort will be making shells

                              carapace on carapace  & loss of fossils

                              will signal              progressions toward

                              plea bargains with pronouns       to mean more     

                              among papery insects  & mammals that swat them

                              among people it is      all plural metaphor        saying the word we       

                              meaning           the foot           the hand          the ear       the eye         

                              say it          say we         as if me            & you were

                              not always standing around                 with our parts so private  

 







             

 

 

 

 

 

                  Susan Scarlata