Canticus Narcissus

Canticus Narcissus

Behind the material part of a suicide blond,

the theory of resurrection,

which is solitary of course, a theory

but causes bodies to rise and float

like thin magician's assistants.

Behind each percept its universal shadow,

ancient shapes with no traditions

but a history of being.

Behind the storm, a freezing,

behind each death, sum of two units lives.

Behind the organ of vision an image as the mind

insists upon having it seen,

mother for instance lying near death

with roug cheeks the nourish applied.

Behind your desire,.the starkness of the world.

Behind each ghost; eagerness and craving appetite

Behind the news that can't be printed,

a cool rain falling, for this is not the world,

and this is not the dark. This is the word as mark,

where high in the attic of introspection

you can scent the chimichanga.

Before the meditation the sign; before the cavity between the jaws

a name.

The world begins with the intimacy of distance

and extreme points with a crowding. It is then (then)

when (When) terrible and terrible

we are enamored of the sheer work of existence,

abstract meetings of muscle and fat and flesh.

Instead of the age, a falling;

before the sheet, the winding.

Fat with winter, which here means rain,

we are upon a future street. The unmutilated of wheels

must mean: tusk of waking, birth of a pearl,

storm above park, rim shot timing.

On a hill overlooking a world,

these are the abiding-places of the shining.

Copyright World poesy Incorporated May/Jun 1999

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