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Light & Dust Mobile Anthology of Poetry
sampler
Silent, Silent Moon
Spanish variant
A prayer, silent & lunatic
settles on my lips
thinking of you
memories circling overhead
I interpret, I guard, I construct
a thousand & twenty narratives
tied together at the wrists
floating in the river,
desaparecidos I suppose
victims of love
what kind of grand fiction
should record the surubí river fish
running in packs down the Paraguay River
chipping away at the bones? those
desaparecidos, who knows, perhaps they're
happy with lightning & other inland storms
telling them "you're special!
you're special! you're special!"
words, inarticulatable
floating in the river
desire: word meaning stretched flesh
life: word meaning stretched death
devotion: word meaning burning faith
love: word meaning uncertain, lost flush
if the first meeting's not a miracle
the spirit-set-afire certainly is --
miracle of sweet tempests & existential anguish
blood paralyzed, body sad
what would they have done,
restless spirits
having gone flying without stopping
seeking out, design dot-to-dot
in great, horrid circles
hoping to find that lost flush of excitement
in a river, or in a thick stretch of muck
test the limits of representation
just one function of "love" or "first flush"
juxtapositions of the body and philosophy
so I speak to you with my twisted words
with futile gestures
that carry nothing more than a subtle hint
Freedom
built on the impossibility of communication
phrases are already defeated
before the pattern leaves the mouth
of the river
I'm floating, searching for more faceless corpses
Desire's that airplane circling overhead
monitoring the way the river's heaving up
acceptable aphoristic phrases
to twist together as metaphors
conquer the distance between action and explanation
wrists wired together behind my back
in a moment framed by exigencies
you made me
your flower, your dream, your insecurity --
how's that for hopeless narrative?
diction shifts & other currents
laminar & turbulent in this river
under this silent, silent moon
just more metaphors --
if even that complicated
a prayer, silent & lunatic
settles inutterably on my lips
world of indomitable contradictions
& weak, inadequate illumination
useless, sad, ineffective
but how sweet
how very sweet