A Multitude of Absolutes

The Maw of Reason

THE LAST RECALL

I recall myself, for parts

deficient and memory lacking.

I don’t recall any parts

independent of the whole,

but an overall review might

be in order, to draw up

a hierarchy among the fragments.

I can’t recall that time you’re

talking about, but will accept

second guesses as assurances

that I was actually there.

You’re sure I said that?

I was that shadow seen through a keyhole?

That thin-as-a-whisper asshole?

I take it back, I take it back,

I take it back…

Radiator heat

clicks on like stuttering speech

noises in the dark

Bundled Christmas trees

outside Flatbush grocery

yellow cabs flash past

    Like a blind man’s sight

    rain patters across rooftops
    tracing an outline

Rain thrashes briefly 

then quiets to a whisper 

like memory’s pulse

Rain hits suddenly
as if to a stricken land
someone smiles in sleep

The Braille of raindrops
falls on all our blind faces
nothing to read here

A flesh-pink half moon
last mist left after the storm
both dissolve away

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