Representation (Object Constancy)

                           by Susan Lewis

1.

Should this?

Should this be this?

No it to blame,

Homeric pretense;

or ring to this rhythm

(brick in a bucket)—

like breath

(pushed out, let in)

like any height,

ducking the branch

(a bodied maybe)

(a bodied thus we yield)

guarding something of ambition,

something of regret

—or this way we have

to live

without excuse—

(pushed out; let in.)

(that + the moment’s question)

& catch our breath

(between demand & neglect)

not remember, but

you are forbidden,

not pleasure, but

something we never.

The task of young fingers

combing the encounter

for lost consequence,

for not question

or answer:

should this?

Should this be this?

2.

click

(this door closing)

relief

(stutter of lost thought)

what we’ve done

(aged words & other demons)

massed minutes hard as pebbles

(click)

            unless grit-toothed,

                        salved,

                                    animadverse

(in lieu of pooling

            round a schoolyard)

            or unbent,

                        idea’d,

                                    underextended

until the folds splay

            (salient & charged).

click:

(another door, still closing)

            minute,

                        without moment—

this only show             half  over,

                        unbegun—

too much

(still draining the possible)

cracks widening,

            pains routed

                        (taken root)

the decline from point zero

            still steep,

                        still dreadful

_____________________________

Susan Lewis contributes regularly to this blog. Her work will also appear in AlteredScale.com 3, the Internet arts journal with which this blog is associated.

"Besides my work as an editor at Madhatters' Review, I'm the author of “How To Be Another” (Cervena Barva Press, forthcoming, 2013), "At Times Your Lines" (Argotist e-Books, 2012), "Some Assembly Required" (Dancing Girl Press, 2011), “Commodity Fetishism,” winner of the 2009 Cervena Barva Press Chapbook Award, & “Animal Husbandry” (Finishing Line Press, 2008). My work has appeared in many many venues, including Berkeley Poetry Review, Boog City,  Cimarron Review, Cross Connect, The Dirty Goat, Eclipse, Fact-Simile, Fast Forward, Fourteen Hills,  Fugue, The Journal, Kitchen Sink, Lilies and Cannonballs Review, Lungfull, Monday Night, The New Orleans Review, Ninth Letter, Other Rooms, The Otherstream Anthology,  Pool, Phoebe, Raritan, Seneca Review, Snow Monkey, So To Speak, Sycamore Review, Verse (online), & Verse Daily. My collaborations with composer Jonathan Golove have been recorded & widely performed & my collaborations with artist Melissa Stern have been exhibited in New York City & Seattle. My website is www.susanlewis.net."