Daily Archives: February 26, 2012

Critical Thought

“Wrong, wrong, wrong,
and so incorrect.  Cannot say enough
about the wrong of it,
the wringing of hands that follow it —

oh, it’s an opinion about something,
one voice, one view — still, such wrong
cannot be approved.  It doesn’t
fit, does it? How can such a thing

be said and let stand?  It’s about
the nature of art, isn’t it? Critical
theory?”  Labels and genres and
modalities, o my —

here’s the thing:
I’m going to go outside,
see the planets lined up with the moon,
say something of the huge cosmos

within which I’m so small.  Maybe it will
change things, maybe
it will preserve a moment.
Maybe it will matter after I die, after we all die. 

Now then, classify it
and paint it your color —
dead black, live blue.
I have better things to do. 


The Tunnel

The Tunnel opens inside me, shows its end-light to all.
A cup is flung, shatters on the far kitchen wall.
Salt shaker stands mute, is showered with the shards.
The microwave bears up, shoulders off the pieces to the floor.

The noise in the Tunnel? A lost train, speeding outward.
The light in the Tunnel? Flame, infamy, loosely-strummed rock guitar.
The Tunnel itself? Built for years, open for a few red seconds.
The chest where it lives? A cave-in blasted open.

My chest hangs open, the far light increasing within…
something’s coming fast, roaring, charging out to this side… 
the chef’s knife holds itself very still, waiting its turn…
and I push my chest closed and hope against hope that it heals.