from “Kushim”
i. I could have come here years ago…
I could have come here years ago and been alone
Soft hills beneath me…..been alone by accident
Hoping or not to…..the odds of others even one
Being here also when let’s say I came and went
And was…..untroubled both ways say I took it well
The hilltop speckled with their long black coats…..the scent
Of each man smudged with each man’s neighbor’s…..say until
I couldn’t stand it say I halted in the cloud
Inhaling it I didn’t…..nudge my neighbor tell
Him winking nod say Sniff…..you’ve vanished in the crowd
But you can smell the crowd and catch yourself in it
But you won’t know I didn’t…..think or think out loud
Any such thing to anyone I didn’t spit
And glare at people surely waiting for my glare
I took it well…..soft hills beneath me…..now a glit-
tering the sound of…..the stream escaping…..everywhere
I used to go I could have been alone if luck
Would then have had it…..then the sirens…..hanged on the air
The sky became a gallows….. but I in my muck
Survived…..beneath it…..first heard screaming then no sound
Just now a single note a mockingbird a truck
Backing away…..no birds in the air…..none on the ground
Rotting…..for months be fair…..none rotting ever since
Before The calling it Exclusion yes but bound
To be some echoes some…..of life some evidence
Oort cloud of all the vanished sounds from which a cry
Must sometimes fall investigate this…..with what lens
Through which I’ve not myself already vanished…..I
Have seen no living thing but plants since fall since late
In fall none…..but I didn’t see…..anything die
Had stopped outside my hole beneath the sirens…..wait-
ed then heard screaming ran inside…..had only just
Left thinking I would take the air…..habituat-
ed as I hoped to soon become to walking must
Habituate oneself at times to walking near
One’s fellow man again the…..stink of some of dust
That robs one’s mouth of fluid stink of some of beer
That forces one’s saliva to one’s tongue I lay
Down in my muck and rode the screaming out…..now…..here
Whose solitude is perfect as mine is …..let’s say
A note of envy from the cloud of human stone
At that…..they see it…..none to back a truck away