A small remark, almost unnoticed,
then not quite believed, like those false
pools the late afternoon heat makeson the road you (for there is, it turns
out, a you here, and a setting, let’s
make it sun) are driving into dusktime-wise, albeit away from dusk
geographically, moving east from
the mountain, trying to keep to the tipof the peak’s shadow, which in a more
fanciful mood you might regard
as a hand reaching out for you,though not the kind of personification
you particularly like in a poem,
not this late in the game. At any rate,this remark, when it slipped into
existence, when she gave birth
to it there between you, held itself aloftin your thoughts, like a moon
risen in the sky of your mind and which
you saw as though you’d never seenit rise before. It seemed incongruous
among the other thoughts—the ones
about you, the ones in her head, that is,the ones you’d invented about you
for her head—incongruous like an old couch,
beer-brown with a permanent ditchcarved into the far left cushion, amid
the matching soft-light white of the others,
the kind of couch a new husband naively seesas inviting and friendly and so insists
at first on keeping in a place of prominence,
or rather he keeps insisting, but failsand then it’s down to the cellar
to sleep the sleep of the past. (A bit
of a stereotype, which though unfairis familiar enough that we might
meet on common ground, you and I.)
Anyway, just before she madethis remark, you had been so taken
with her—that is, taken with
her notions of you or, rather, takenwith your notion of her notions
of you—that it did not seem out
of the question that someday youmight give up the old couch, let it
sink a level in the house, a house you
might one day paint together,an off-white to cover up the lives lived
there before you; you could see that
she was the kind to get a smudgeof paint there off-center on her chin,
which you imagined you might be called
on to remove, but then her remark slapped youinto the present, which itself now thankfully
is safely becoming the past, falling mile
after mile into the shadow catching upwith you, a shadow that now seems less like
a hand and more like memory itself (again,
though, not a comparison you’d normally findfetching). For it was the kind of remark
not worth recalling or believing,
better left in the dim basementof memory, beneath the old paint blanket,
the splatter-guard that covers so many
offenses, the botched junior prom datewith Marlie, the stumbling admission
of virginity (yours, I fear—I’m starting
to feel sorry for you), the whole summercamp underwear incident—but why dredge
it all up, the stiff blanket of embarrassment
covers these offenses, the way paint slapspesky imperfections from the molding, or
a shadow masks the potholes in the road, or
the earth’s atmosphere gives the dead, airlessmoon a kind of friendly, bon vivant
appearance, which is not at all the type
of description you favor in a poem,not this late, driving to who knows what
metaphor you’re capable of, under cover
of, for Christ’s sake, the second person,a mirage you’ve never favored because
you drive up and it disappears, as the day
does to dark, which is the convenient,comfortable blanket beneath which we sleep,
you and I, even while driving, even in daylight,
every damned day of our peaceful lives.
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with M Chakraborty and K MacCarter
55: FUTURE MACHINES
with Bella Li
54: NO THEME V
with F Wright and O Sakr
53.0: THE END
with P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones