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If I didn't need to do anything, would I? Would I oscillate in two or three dimensions? Would I summon a beholder and change chirality for "him"? A massless particle passes through the void with no resistance. Ask what it means to pass through the void. Ask how it differs from not passing.
Copyright © 2012 by Rae Armantrout. Reprinted with permission of the author.
1
In the first cartoons
the mutability of forms
was a laugh riot:
bouncing biceps,
one foot growing huge
to stomp a cricket—
and staying that way.
The aye-aye’s
first finger.
Dressed all in plastic,
which means oil,
we’re bright-eyed, scrambling
for the colored cubes
spilled
on the rug’s polymer.
Inside each
is a tiny car.
When we can’t unscrew the tops
we cry for help.
1
We encountered a problem
sending
a command
to the program.
Did I say that
aloud?
I’ve broken out
in imps.
*
To be a blip
in a circuit
and to know it,
to relish
this knowledge
in your private
moments
as all moments
are gated
and switched.
2
When I mentioned hatred
I was not thinking
of you,
but you’d best not break
our momentum,