The Short Imposition of Living
by Matthew Keuter
HOW TO VACATION IN A COUNTRY AT WAR
1
One way I know is to become the coffee pot
below the office calendar,
this is better than becoming the filing cabinet
the coffee is stirred by everyone alike
with their tongue.
You might also consider becoming the calendar
but in bright-field illuminations of vitamin C crystallites
you can’t feel the wind
naked as a horse, fill its chest over the wave
& bellow the deep black electric night at sea.
Be the wind then
or become the wave inspired by your former self
the wind(with the moon that is inside you &)
inside the wave
even the wave that is sleeping inside the eye of the shark
closed within the wave asleep inside the eye
of the storm
& the desire inside the shark inside the wave
is the prehistoric desire within us to master the seas
with our desire(& if not desire cowardice
desire)to escape the terrified city
of our employment(too early the hospice
of our desire).
*
We Numerous we giddy
before the bridge crossing into wilderness
above the river drawing all its long face
to pucker & kiss the mouth of the sea.
We numerous as shark’s teeth
as fragile, as easily replaces, as irreplaceable, as
much killer
as much priest
as likely to die in our sleep
as much owing to a mouthful of water
as much the face beneath the surface of veil, as much the heart veiled
in its dark guise of infidelity, as much the mourning heart in its veil of levity
as much the right cowboy as the right dude whipping the sick horse
drawing its carriage
through the sponge of exhaust wiping down
Park West
the one that looked you dead in the face
with the fly drowning in its eye
& whispered
shoot the fly.
*
&
&
if the fly like the moon can escape the eye
can the wave cheat the moon? can love reverse the tide
of familiarity? can a bullet be fashioned of opposite intent
to enter the eye that blinks in the rifle’s scope?
can the tongue return to the mouth
of the silent grave to command its maker
to sit like children before the fire
in a country at war?