|
Each Station its own gift:
one part graspable,
the other not.
Next the exile entered
& crossed the desert.
He embraced it & stood under
the whole of it.
He found nothing familiar
or useful there, neither on
the mountain nor on the plain.
|
|
1. manners (adab)
what is the manner
I mean the matter
with you standing
there in the desert?
Take your hands
out of your pockets
the desert has no manners
but many pockets
which is no excuse for your
lack of know-how
when it comes to sharing
this last pinch of
hot sand & mica
hides as lint
in the pockets
of your heart
2. awe (rahab)
the awe is in gawking
when you see it
it scares you
where it’s the unseen
you seem to want to care
for even though
it scars you to face the
awe that is not
in the thing or the it
but between the two
it’s the relation a
we can be
9. probity (nazah)
Lament its absence
among those who govern.
16. witnessing (shuhud) 
1.
no, I don’t want to.
it is all you can do.
who are you to tell
me what I did. you
saw nothing. you
were not there. I
was. He or she are
the necessary third
let them tell me or
you what the all is
you or me did do.
no one witnesses.
2.
so, you don’t want to.
it is all I can do.
who am I to tell
you what I did. You heard
nothing. my eyes
were closed, you
saw nothing either I
was not there or you
were and what if so I
closed my ears.
Why should you want to.
You heard nothing.
I saw it all. He or
she are the necessary
third party, she said
now I’ve heard it all.
23. isolation (infirad) 
I’m infuriated
by isolation
but it is the only I
there is under
the sun its wheel
rolls out of
infrared ultra
violent blue
of sun’s stroke
post isolation a
post to stand
there on a corner
of the desert this
life wants to
make of
us all
unfinished by
isolation
an I in
iso elation
plays with itself
hands in pockets
it stands, not
yet endangered
species, endangering
isolato Americano
on the corner
of any desert-
ed street between
here & here
the pocket billiards
of empire: an isolation
34. patience (tasabbur)
whose patience? the mother's
immense, eternal
patience for her child,
an absolute of species, it is
life-long (her
life's length, that is)
or the child's frayed
patience with the aging
parent — the mother already
beyond time, out of time,
time-lessness of forgetting
alzheimer's folly
I forget I forget she says
be patient with me, child
even as I am impatient with
my own memory, mother
says I hear does she
hear what
she says what I say
the distance of impatience
with her now who am I
to tell her.
"This is fatal, the disease
is called Remember" [RK "The Death Goliath"
38. observation (ri’aya) 
What do I observe
as I stand here
eyes open
hands deep
in pockets?
the things out there
the happening things
as time and space collide
or is time & space
colliding?
Or do I observe
the rules of
engagement
(enjambments?
of those collisions?
Is observation
Obeying?
If I see a riot
do I join or
obey
the rules of engagement
that invariably
tell me to stay apart.
Will I stay my
hand, and only make
observation?
I am full of questions
this morning
as I try to observe
the rules of composition
declaring themselves
under hand.
Yes. I have taken
my hands out of
my pockets now,
as you can plainly
observe, see me
writing here
and now. Follow
as fast as I can
the word form
somewhere I cannot
see. I have waited
a second
too long. Now a
ksar like
a baseball field
after a nuclear
engagement obstructs
the screen.
I no longer stand
in the desert
but in front of it
fixed on this screen
I observe pixellated
dunes and don’t notice
how the writing under hand
folds itself
into triplicate stanzas.
|
|
|
