Born

published in Sein und Werden

without end. no omens of mis-

adventure

no warnings

to beware   

as life

as humanly here

begins:

a lit door opens without a sound

and you, a pint-sized probing scout go forth impatient

to consume the air. you have the dignity of rareness. oh you have never felt so naked

it won’t hurt, whatever they take from you

(you don’t even think to ask for mercy)

and will you miss the smell of the garden

and will you want the colors of home

poor alien?

name!birthplace!family!

what roots that clutch

do not signify multiple

frailty?

now now now your cries clack between jaws

mechanically after-the-fact. unseeingly

you act with all the wrong verbs. poor sucker stuck to props that are no longer

here

cues hissing, warning of

mis-

Step, over and over (the throngs shouting less, less! instead of more, more)

and the glitter

comes spattering down …

rhyme it: tell well bell and fell   

and so on, so much

to be known: hell sell yell

so much, so much

oh memory (me-more-yee!)

purely purge thy dross.