Fix me to your idea of midnight. Meaning,
I’m here if you need me. Tomorrow let’s spill
water and let our socks sop it up
as we dance. Other things will be true
by then too. Cutting onions with our eyes closed,
humming to the fridge humming: these are the ways
we will exercise faith. No worry if our
wants want nothing to do with us, we will
sharpen our needs. Say precise.
Or is it possible we must ask for things because
we believe, ultimately, in listening?
Sixteen years ago you called me and talked about the future
in a way that scared the shit out of me.
Say perish the thought. How does one do that?
Time aside—the past toppled you unperfect is too close
to say it was. Or tomorrow was a lion’s mouth
you would step into. Meaning,
ask something of me.
Like the secondhand of a clock, if you hear it you only hear it. Say pear.
Click. Somewhere I have a picture of a man hidden
behind a picture of a cave. Say prick.
The technical term for this is etymology. He was there
meaning something and then he wasn’t, meaning slightly
something else. Say pressure. Somewhere else a slow metronome tocks.
Another lopsided thought. The somewhere of course
is in the mind, by which I mean my mind and with each long sway,
say continue. Suppose that was all I wanted to say.
If I could decide for you too—where are you right now
I wonder—say continue. We must.
