2001

AREA Q

We'll be together someday soon;
Compare See you tomorrow! I pack my bag,
Set the alarm, stare at the ceiling til morning.

Walk into the street and a seed sprouts.
Belief on the face like the name on a bus:
Across the street seven strangers face south.

How people used to wait: As prepositions --
Behind the control gate, down the penstock --
And then another part of speech, eventually
Eventually eventually spinning the turbine,

A stick out your tongue attention I thought
Only existed in the clinic. The doctor
Walks by an open door. The selectric
Continues its tattoo. When children sleep

A bird stands in the library parking lot
Pushing from its diaphragm Not yet not yet,
The excitement transmitting

To every window's potential greenhouse --
An ivy tendril waves, grips the brick
A foot away. Your call is important to us.

Factors that extend subjective time:
Having nothing to do, uncertainty,
No explanation, a sense of injustice,
Being alone -- tomorrow's central planners
Visit this mock theme park to study
Reactions to environments controlled

To avert anxiety, or as may be, accentuate it.




[This poem was funded in part by a grant from Chris Sullivan]