Call one shadow, the other fullness: little difference

between cloud & sea: captured together they most resemble

a new bruise, or the trembling surface of an offered cup: held

so to grip this world, to test belonging & not belonging

to the sea, to the cloud: pictured together we must resemble

the murmuring flock at the center − surge of question marks −

− body of bodies − in this last world of belonging & unbelonging:

the ghost of a bird is “bird”: mirrorlike, though one is less real:

murmuring flocks at the border − as when questions make a scene −

it’s startling, how the frame holds fast. It happens there is no escape.

The ghost in a “bird” is bird: mirrorlike, the more they reel:

& tear-like bodies make clouds (the same we see make a sea):

how startling the frame, how vast as it happens: no escaping

these repetitions: the flock is all water, the birds, waves,

bodies tear from the sea (from the same clouds, it seems).

Mesmerizing,

these repetitions: the flock all water − birds: waves −

if not frame & apparition, if not pictured where we look.

Mesmerizing

to be held without beholding

frame & apparition & picture as we like:

no bruised & trembling reflection in this offered cup: held

& held without the gripe of beholding

one as shadow, the other fullness:

little difference never-landing:

(from The Map of Every Lilac Leaf: Poets Respond to the Smith College Museum of Art, 2020)