In return, by JKD

After Amanda Deutch's poem "I wanted to tell you" from May 15, 2009

Thursday
on an after-morning uncertainty

phrases seasick with bottles
empty expression

“I've never
seen”

anyone
or I
am
not as blank
as this
reproduction

Certain hours
become masks

ourselves voiceless,
mined, coming up for air

through this dark shaft
elevate me

staid voice:

“aren’t you
wary?”

Tender, undressed motions passed
as at the bar

exams in which we
implicate
the shape of the cosmos.

Peruse morning’s
mourning like this afternoon

well
into the evening,
dug

As if I had been wanting words

wiped out
so things replace

stacks

and then
a color speaks:

“drive past chance
or the harbor”

This collision
.............../ collusion

red autumn
trees blooming.

Who am I to tell them why it’s wrong?

Little prepared
wind,
perhaps I am
street corners

or movement—

golden as on
any
separation

Package wrapped, or a wall
“gives” or was it
“behind.”

Holding up
a way-
ward scrawl

Typescript noise

Cloudwakes
unable to believe Tuesday

A ripple, a return.

This keeps me awake
for years