NEW MATHMATICS

NEW MATHEMATICS

They are busing everyone

With new ideas to a single

Room.  It is huge.  They are

Assigned a single letter of the 

Alphabet and are told to 

Explain themselves.

I don’t go.  I am able only

To speak in numbers.

Some of them are significant.

I recall there used to be

Noises coming from the sun.

I thought it was music.

A single wave breaks in

The collective imagination.

The room of ideas is opened.

It is filled with the sea.

Language floats upon it

Like garbage.

I am asked to explain this in numbers.

These are visual calculations.

They are made with language.

I, FOR ONE CHOOSE RAIN

I, FOR ONE, CHOOSE RAIN

The bones were all disordered and covered

With a fine layer of dust.  We were as 

Surprised as morning that we had found

Anything at all.

We heard a voice crying out.

It sounded like it knew

Our names but we could not 

Be sure.  We could not be sure

Of anything.  A green belt around

A pool of water, both deep and 

Clear with a black bottom

That made the surface dance.

And it was exclaiming something

Very important.

The entire scene was an accident

Of the tide.  A blind wind and a blind

Water forced up to make a statement

That could never find words

But which would stand as firm

As God’s promise to a blind man

That he would see again.  But no one

Ever saw.  It became a clipped 

Presence, never offering comfort.

I, for one, choose rain

As a veil.  I will only see

What it allows; the edge

Of an alley, a man hurrying by

Bearing a large vessel that smells

Like coffee.  He has long

Mustaches and wears a turban.

I had a fever and forget how the thing

Ended.  She asked if there was real

Fire in my heart and I showed her

the pile of sticks I had gathered

To feed it.  She looked deep

Into my eyes.  I could see

Door after door closing, until there

Was only me and her once again.

Bones scattered all over the floor.