1342

GINGER DOLLOP AIM SPREE

Two events: I realized I knew nothing
About the entire continent of Africa
And, at about the same time, I noticed
How small a part of my vocabulary
I considered useable for art. I began
To read the New African, a monthly
It costs less to buy at a newsstand
Than to have it sent to your home. And
Then Kenneth gave me for my 30th birthday
The Second Edition Oxford English Dictionary.
The difficulty is that the poetry you
Or I or anyone writes after reading
Dictionaries for a while is, to put
It gently, academic. Even the novel-
In-progress any historical dictionary
Continually expends its stateliness
Making you forget it really is
Is a source of gravity pulling the hand
Away from art and toward the basalt
Of magical claims on truth. I began
To compile dictionaries of my own
Associations with every word I remembered.
Take remember: I can't hear it
Without seeing Joe Brainard shyly
Accepting my gushy fan overtures
One night at the Church a year before
He died. That's not a good example.
Let's try template, a word
The interface for this software has
Stenciled on its toe. Fine china.
From there I'd jog and shuttle
Forward and back, first to templar:
Knight carrying the alarum backwards
Into the swimming pool; then
Templateria: any of a number
Of socializing institutions, e.g., school,
Church, sports team, youth group, dedicated
To the obliteration of anxiety-provoking
Quirks. What I am learning from Africa
Is that hidden influences and sudden
Changes are to be expected. As they say
On the rumor pages, DEVELOPING.