Fragments Beginning With A Line By Berryman Poem by Warren Falcon

Fragments Beginning With A Line By Berryman



for Karthik


Childness let's have us honey

flame intended

name smeared

on the glass

an accidental

pane

x hands touching it

delicate

as trespass


what is allowed

lace of

vision

x want

= at last a sum

= at last a remorse

felt

a memory

sunk into

soft teas


steeps

turns

steaming

said window

said prints,

views obscured

of nothing

in particular,

or special,

troubles only,

only of passing

birds enamored

of

(their lighter

bones)

or

are they

cloud and shadow?

merely the steep

sun declining ashen

into the Jersey side?

O come lover

back

the floor where we

lay times upon boards

the cluttered

clothes the

depositions

x at least 3

and take me once

again one

x infinity

into your arms

x 2

leave me when

you/we are done doing

x 0

a mere cypher flown

sheer up the flue

into the blue ash

which now the sky is

where

(there is only one

sky)

a dove flies

into some possibility

of memory

or not

x 35 thousand

x plus the time it

takes for you to exit

shedding skins, shells

(am a shell,
water you?
you decide)

x infinity into

the one drain in-

to ocean reflecting

blue sky of ash

into what remains

of you on the beach

bathing soft Junes

the organ grinder

smiles/sings 'amor

fati' mellifluously

the boardwalk on

x planks from

many trees

x ants in the

roots lumber

their endless

burdens black

or red carapaces

shining as if

sand

x grains untold

as hairs their

bodies follicles

delicate when

under the glass

espied

over-spilling into

o endlessly

it's seams, it seems

into memory

which is, already

over-said

overheard redundantly

a river

and time,

this one

recalled,

the cloud drift

and the river

the tides beside

the city both sides

is as ancient

as it always was

& is

in the beginning

was darkness

over deep water

& a word, any word

really would do

form something

out of deep, of

dark, of water

which shapes it-

self only by outer

circumstance

in this case

a word

leading up to

this

contraction

of bellies

against

each

x 2, and legs

x 4, and lips

x myriad ones gone

before of murmurs

O lover

of thee

I adore

I am unkindly

left remembering

once was laughter

spent

seeking out

between bodies'

valleys eternally

shifting eluding

capture


this

just to re-

introduce some

levity for we

were many day-ed

x merry

merrily played

harming no one

not even the

mouse unmoved

perhaps, watching

perhaps, still,

still, from beneath

the god you insisted

be excluded from

all our nakedness

x 1 too many breaths

exchanged, groped

x many ropes all our

wanting

the curtained

dancer entranced

entered into

upon a mystery

how one could

be so, well,

so marvelous

& so cruel too

as one wills

a silver stem

sharp the metal

top jags memory-

edge tears open

facts

that there was love,

there was love after

all

I could see

it smell it

feel it there

dancing round

the livingroom

one holds

on to & upon

goodness brown

pulled from below

down & dark & deep

such is so

this is the

riddle it is

all now become

since you

departed, love


since you

departed I shall

count backward by

3's then 4's the

door which once

embraced you now

never lets you

go

no matter

the black or

blue tide

of thee

O lover


what

slips out

ebbs black

back into

lapis

lapses into what

self is uttered/

poured scored

transparent upon

surfeit surface

faces

which are

even

eyes which now

glaze with love

lost

beside the flue

marked upon the

pane blue

the mouse

black remains

is many

a multitude

of petals

x 3

the jasmine

unspurned

at last at

last/least

return

soft Junes

the lips of

which are

sometimes

pink of

lavender

swollen as

if to kiss

x 3 the antinomies

a string of pearls

& thee O lover

back to me

playing

loud where the

curtains sway

I stand behind

them the curtained

dancer entranced

entered into

upon a mystery


the organ grinder

smiles/sings 'amor

fati' mellifluously on

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Warren Falcon

Warren Falcon

Spartanburg, South Carolina, USA
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