That Life Remained Sequential

1. "We danced and brought eggs and diet cokes out"

All the rainbows in the diamond
Were gone away before sunset.
Everything centers on nothing.
Nothing centers on gravity.

I loved you. Function stood enchained.
Theory had entered a valley.
You had entered me like a tree
Taking root, taking possession,

Enclosing random rocks in wood.
When the woods have broken, the rocks
Will reemerge on stony shores
Neither one of us lived to see

And one of us, I, can't believe.
After us nothing was, ever.

2. Giunda

I wish I had a lifetime
To see it recover. Steal
Thunder from the greater world.
The greater soul grates a bit
In the lightning-shattered ear.
The sun is playing footsie
With the clouds above the lake.

Count the calendar backwards
Until you run out of days
You were alive; on the way
You'll run short of memories.
I have gone under this lake
Many summers, now, mistakes
Only echoes muttering.

3. "I kept waiting for the world to smell wonderful"

"'Sentences,' she said." I
Only read she said it,
But I might get a sentence
Or two out of reading

And thinking of infections
Of the kind reading gives
A brain that's addicted
To culture and whatnot.

The world smells wonderful,
Looks wonderful, and feels
Wonderful except when
It seems rather other

Than that. Time to wrap up,
Get the cast in the bag.

4. Sun, Clouds, Rain, Storms, Sun, the Same

Quote the quotations
You think you might like,
The weather, right here,
On "this blue-green, white

Flagged earth," on this spot,
This moving moment,
Long since gone, insists
On priority

Of correlation,
Hence no causation.
I loved what I loved.
You, I loved you, yes

You. You don't think so,
Since I went swimming.

5. In the Drink

Moderation
Is the soul's sole
Pointless, forlorn,

Meaningful hope
Of redemption.
Am I saying

Anything quite
Salient, beyond
My obsession

With how culture,
Brain born, brain borne,
Inficts the facts

Of lake sonnets?
Little room, love.

6. Art Project

Sarah and
Sequoia,

Perched on boards
Holding moss

They meant to
Make whole dreams

Of peopled,
Animaled,

Fairytale,
Wonder tale

Art, worked hard
To complete

One good thing.
He was them.

7. What Was

Getting
So far
Into
The work
Of one

Half-gone
Daylight
Passage
Around
The sun

Shining,
Singing,

One thought,
"I'm done."