Variations On Line Poem by Louis Armand

(for Eddie Berrigan)

Continuities lie in wait, long after
you've closed the book.
To undergo once more but for the
last time
these sunless calligraphies -
shop-window symbology
& the whole world blowing up
to be made NEW!
Passing a strange girl
on "the street"
you give money to for
charity -
& I, also, have loved Rusalka.
Quoting sharmanic jazz
as raison d'être.
Blood on Žižkov
hotel bed
framed à la
Nat Finkelstein.
Counting the streetlights, their
attention factors & habits
so much depends upon.
(The lull before any silence.)
Saying there is
a certain
time
when you can
only be
on the side
of chaos.