Incarnation: 9:30 am to 9:36 am
Incarnation: 9:30 am to 9:36 am
She sits on the straightback chair in the room.
A ray of sun is calling across the slatwood floor.
I say she because my body is so still
in the folds of daylight
through which the one beam slants.
I say calling because it lays itself down
with a twang and a licking monosyllable
across the pine floor-boards鈥
making a meaning like a wide sharp thought鈥
an unrobed thing we can see the inside of鈥
less place than time鈥
less time than the shedding skin of time, the thought
of time,
the yellow swath it cuts
on the continuum鈥
now to the continuum
what she is to me,
a ceremonial form, an intransigent puissant corridor
nothing will intersect,
and yet nothing really
鈥揹ust, a little heat . . .
She waits.
Her leg extended, she waits for it鈥
foot, instep, calf鈥
the I, the beam
of sun鈥
the now and now 鈥
it moving like a destiny across,
neither lured-on nor pushed-forward,
without architecture,
without
beginning,
over the book lying in the dust,
over the cracked plank鈥揹own into the crack鈥揳cross鈥
not animal
nothing that can be deduced-from or built-upon,
aswarm with dust and yet
not entered by the dust,
not touched 鈥
smearing everything with a small warm gaiety鈥
over the pillow-seam over the water glass鈥
cracking and bending but not cracking or bending鈥
over the instep now, holding the foot鈥
her waiting to feel the warmth then beginning
to feel it鈥
the motion of it and the warmth of it not identical鈥
the one-way-motion of it, the slow sweep,
approaching her as a fate approaches, inhuman but
resembling
feeling,
without deviation,
turning each instant a notch deeper towards
the only forwards,
but without beginning,
and never鈥搉ot ever鈥
not moving
forwards . . .
Meanwhile the knowledge of things lies round,
over which the beam鈥
Meanwhile the transparent air
through or into which the beam鈥
over the virtual and the material鈥
over the world and over the world of the beholder鈥
glides:
it does not change, crawler, but things are
肠丑补苍驳别诲鈥
the mantle, the cotton-denim bunched at
the knees鈥
diamonds appearing on the tips of things then disappearing鈥
each edge voluble with the plushnesses of silence鈥
now up to her folded arms鈥搘arm under the elbow鈥
almost a sad smell in the honeyed yellow鈥
(the ridge of the collarbone) (the tuck of the neck)
till suddenly (as if by
accident)
she is inside鈥(ear, cheek)鈥搕he slice of time
now on the chin, now on
the lips, making her rise up into me,
forcing me to close my eyes,
the whole of the rest feeling broken off,
it all being my face, my being inside the beam of sun,
and the sensation of how it falls unevenly,
how the wholeness I felt in the shadow is lifted,
broken, this tip lit, this other dark鈥揳nd stratified,
analysed, chosen-round, formed鈥