The Second Language
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Spose thmoment were on a bench in Battry park

on thbench made of hardwood ash was

dog-man planed dilgently in thstiff air

thit thnewborn scream unto threadywound

thpainted vermillien favord in seventyold bureaucracies

nsiens oer thpark office whose hair smellsve mild-dew,


hereon this bench should involve the old rake of geese

or duck: was thbird what ythought twas, wast the size

ythought ysaw? ditch ythinkm much larger once when

birdsn birds canticoyn across pinkeny sky

spotspon spots drawn closern skyve distances

high vaultige arriven placesn sudden realization—nhere!—


Spose dto carry lungsise the stuffve rooms t warth

tbe away from dancesve officers n agents

thi elision of time we'ren, thcapital time,

thviolence you've seen, thviolence ythink ymight

get wayfrom, get farwayfrom, that ymight

scape hetrotrophy tselft


and each sposed in its steady day

ypaint feelefold thvisage blue

t Urania's wet lefes heave yth ele f dogpelt

redoublen of time capitaling tself in abraiding lines

canticoying men that know nothingve you

swike men that know nothing ofall


Spose y on this high bench were to judge

ginst thhistory of meat, aginst the cold hours spilt

elleovenenthe butchry, with heads of geese, the smell of ferrum in thair,

aginst infrigeration, aginst thhours n distances, the flights,

ginst thdecisions made to make nmake demand

no ymustn't be sweet, only nicen elike ababe in time of labish meat


still ypaint in secret th Egyptian geese of the dotsky

in whose time the sihtve Urania's hair grayer n drifts

her face nits freckles further t your eye

firmament swide n warty with fury

for the time, after birds

in the year of butchry


And spose in this moment that all things of bloudwd change

her hand, viciousnd kind, on yerhand,

and the medicin like satanus asshole mint in peristalsis down

your juvnile throat, and thwoman who testedye, who thought

maybe you're ready, maybe indeed you're of the few,

and this challenge is thright mesure of your lyf,


tho she didn't yet realize but then could see

you were at sevnteen thmeter of

every man one could hope to never be,

there she was across the river awaiting your change

nthe air between you shimmerd heatfully like

the angel was waitn for you talso see.

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