*

When those architectural masses ceded their forms,
they also ceded their limitations.

That afternoon, we watched them supply us
with myth, an abundance of sky,
and a dark suit.          You,
on the couch, aghast and
spiritually quartered.
Me, palm on your hip,
culling the breaths
from your breaths, your
bones from their

shatter.

And some people assigning the beard of a "jihadist"
to the face of a "jihadist"          like a value.

And yes we have been places. We have seen
the foibles of the avant-garde
and the weaknesses of convention. We have
dipped our feet in still ponds
and, later,
                       immobile. We have been places

and we have seen a man in sewage with a pulse
like water. But despite our melancholy,
we try. We try and gather initiative like
a threat. I tell you

things to enhance your perspective. I mention

that man in the sewage with a pulse like water.
I mention the human subject
and end up only threatening my perspective.

____

Meditation and dream sequence. An experiment in the retardation of the moment. Part of a book-length manuscript of like poems that attempt to describe the speaker's relationship to the city, to a lover, etc., and locate any related problems. Written in Providence, with recent geopolitical occurrences in mind.

Recommendations for further reading:

Fuck You-Aloha-I Love You by Juliana Spahr
The Inferno by Dante
Vineland by Thomas Pynchon