Small Picture
after a line by Stern
Don’t look too much or it gets tempting
to regret all bouts with life. Then nothing
can sit without an undercutting from the studied dark.
Then the secrets open weirdly like mutated flowers. Like a tape
watched and rewound too many times—
Each time how. The jurisdiction of feeling
crated me. Show me
I would beg you any higher law—
Because in any room there’s always
someone who can’t be talked to
someone always transfixing like an icon outlined thick in gilt
and warning. I know
you wouldn’t believe how unholy
but inevitable it was to want it both ways—
Hanae Jonas |