Thursday, December 31, 2020

found poem in progress | assembled from the pages of the new yorker, 2020

Propagation propensity's a question mark;
not a lot of body in the slab.
Dry facets, two to three mils,
it's running the whole gamut of crystal types--
wasn't ice, by any means.
Rimy, small grains.

Snow is less forthcoming than the wind.
Its chaos hides beneath the surface.
She lifts her immaculate face to the winter light.
Something stirs within her, even now,
beneath the ice.

Some believed eels were born of sea foam,
or created when the rays of the sun fell on a certain kind of dew 
that covered lakeshores and riverbanks
in the spring.
Most people adhered to the theory that
eels were born when hairs from horses' tails
fell into the water.

*

The oldest known still-lifes are Eyptian - 
frescoes of figs for the afterlife.
The Assyrians carved pomegranates from ivory. 
And so it continues,
from Caravaggio's grapes to Cézanne's apples.

The actress, model, and Hollywood scion Isabella Rossellini returns to the (virtual) stage
with "Sex and Consequences," 
a live-streamed show about biodiversity and animal reproduction,
beamed from her farm in Bellport, New York,
where she breeds poultry.

I don't know how fluidly feline I would have been.
I'd be a very stagnant, boxlike, kind of anxious cat, 
scurrying down Mulberry Street, past a gesticulating anecdotalist.

If King Lear had gone into the book trade,
he could have saved himself a world of grief.
An excellent hippy, 
his father had died in a wrestling accident.

Flagrant humility;
That’s how I feel every time the camera in my hand 
accidentally reverses and I hear a scream 
and then realize it’s coming from me.

The robot had brought them balloons, confetti, and
letters for a birthday sign,
and they had a cake and a spicy Sichuanese dish called moicai
delivered to one of the gates.
There were cable protectors and scented oils and chicken-jerky curls and baby pacifiers and "Frozen"-themed Ziploc bags and party napkins and elastic wrist supports and charcoal foot scrub and romance novels, detergent and toys and pet food and underwear and motor oil and flashlights and strollers and mops and drain cleaner and glassware and wind chimes and rakes and shoes and balloons and bath towels and condoms and winter coats.

I inadvertently caused my own groping.