SELF PORTRAIT WITH THE RADIO ON
Last night I might have had Retsina
and not cut myself shaving before bed
had it not been for wishing to be elsewhere,
goaded by the mirror to hurry, to clear
its view of the room. Tonight
will end much the same: watching
a woman's hands pretend to know
the piano keys, wishing to be fixed
inside the song. When you visit
the Oracle, it's best to have your question
in mind as well as written on your hand.
While a live rabbit or lamb might travel
better than a statue, both are necessary
forms of appreciation. The spoils
of conquest or dumb luck, too.
Laid against itself, notated in
the player's and composer's mind,
shadow becoming shadow and back
again, to solid. The after-effect,
peripatetic, multiphasic. If watered
into bloom, again in the room, a hand
coaxing a hand to become real.
This could be the thing that lasts;
Makes physical, thought. Is this
how to remember? This could
be the things that lasts.
