by Ray Corvi
It begins with a lapsus
I climb out of the window
into the boughs of trees
become a bird
& fly away
and find myself
grafted to the day
*
the window:
open it––
I shall leap and soar
I can whistle any tune
the songs they o-
pen as windows
or as eyes
we noticed
noticed us
pure error
*
Many things disclose
the ontology of dream––
it breaks my heart
it is I think
a need to die
I made a mistake
but it was fair
a person cried
& I have screamed
the oracle is in despair
*
My mother’s mouth
My father’s fontanelle
the lucidity of madness
im-
mediate
now
& then
& then
*
crestfallen
belittled &
betrayed
tell me about
a
necessary evil
*
if I die
dress me in a tuxedo
but leave my hair uncombéd
*
I broke a bone once:
That is the particular
from it flew a bird
a bird flew out of broken bone
& sang a song
of disrepair
*
my father-mother
a flamingo
bled
& round it
dusk’s pathology
turns neon now
folding it in
a neon teleology
records its voice––
it speaks now
most uncertainly
the timbre wavers
on its breath
*
My father-mother
a flamingo
bled
the pink was pink
a pink run red