How did the synthesis
cross the abyss?
*
In a sentimental story
there is only one
of something:
one newborn,
one moment, one
“once,” embalmed
in myrrh.
*
All I want
is not to be
first on one side,
then the other,
but to conjure
a stream
of sounds and images
for which I am not
responsible.
and maneuver within it –
mouth and tail
one thought.
*
The sea, now full
of cannibal
jellies, blue
if the sky says so
Rae Armantrout is professor emerita of writing at the University of California, San Diego, and the author of thirteen previous books of poetry, most recently Partly.