koethe4

"Partial Clearance"

by John Koethe

Barely a week later

I'd returned to myself again.

But where a light perspective of particulars

Used to range under an accommodating blue sky

There were only numb mind tones, thoughts clenched like
little fists,

And syllables struggling to release their sense to my
imagination.

I tried to get out of myself

But it was like emerging into a maze:

The buildings across the street still looked the same,

But they seemed foreshortened,

Dense, and much closer than I'd ever realized,

	As though I'd only seen them previously in a dream.
	Why is it supposed to be so important to see things as they actually are?
	The sense of life, of what life is like---isn't that
	What we're always trying so desperately to say?
	And whether we live in between them,
	Mirror each other out of thin air, or exist only as reflections
	Of everything that isn't ours, we all sense it,
	And we want it to last forever.

From The Late Wisconsin Spring (1984)

Used with permission of the author.

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