SEGMENT

A segment of the
population is trying
to read illiteracy
into everything.

They serve tea
at their parties,
along with finger
sandwiches cut

from the hands
of the less fortunate.
They carry guns
in their minds

and on their hips.
They breed like vermin.

REAL CONDITION

If it hangs
from the wall,
it's a painting.
If it hangs

from a tree branch,
it's a rustler.
If it hangs
on your every

word, it's in
love and must
be put to
death before

it procreates all
over everything.

PRAYER

Returning astronauts
report feeling
dropped into a
well as they

readjust to the
planet's gravitational
tug. They circle
the park in pink

pajamas, pursued
by nonsensical dogs.
Weightlessness whittles
at their bones

until they fall to
their knees in prayer.

TEDIOUS

Paul Carrol used to use the word "tedious" to describe poems that insisted on taking a detour around the imagination. It wasn't so much the word itself as how it sounded when he said it that caused it to penetrate the air around it like an arrow.

CHILD

A child slides
down a slick
surface in pursuit
of amnesia. He

knows better than
to know better.
He loses track
of time by swinging

back and forth
like a pendulum.
A string tied
around his finger

reminds him to
forget everything.

CONCEPTUAL
for Asad

Let art be conceptual
for a while if that's
what it wants to
be. Every canvas

is blank at birth.
A flower painted
as the idea of a
flower is a conceptual

still life that moves
if and when the wind
uproots it. It's not too
hard to see how

the idea of
this happens.

FIRST

People first began
to move (according
to Aquinas) with
the advent of the

movie. People
first began to
think out loud
with the development

of the loudspeaker.
People first began
to believe in
life everlasting

with the invention
of death.