“Cerebral Cortex”

8

Begin to understand
the nature of the leavening process

*

The letter H
catches in the throat   then she steps
backwards and flings
a handful of earth beyond the edges

Of a page   you hear a hollow sound

The dry external covering
of an ear of corn   then stepping forwards
she scatters letters cut out from
the skull   spine bones

The form of a human body

When I in my youth
in a blue wool dress   I strolled
in a circle of blue
sings the poet Maudite

9

The cerebral cortex   a sliver of brain
barely thicker than a credit card

*

The letter I vertical
under an occult sky once upon
a time I sat cross-legged
in the crotch of a tree

Grape    wine   grain   bread

From roots of plants
that bear the grain in darkness
light   heat   cold   focus on
a common scene 

Chasms in the fissured earth

The story of the baker
a set of skills in sequential order
the finished loaf   A to Z
in place and space

10

Recognize in some dozens of milliseconds
a written word

*

The letter J   the shape
of a hook and on the hook

the butcher’s coat
wind   heat  cold  drought

Blood and mud flows out
of the right sleeve 

One animal
gut   head and tail   measure
body length   jaws  claws
diameters of holes

The zones of inclusion   exclusion

Salt for the stew   salt for the bread
once upon a time   my mother
was sold from me when I
could but crawl

11

Dispatches from the frontiers
of neuroscience

*

The letter K stands apart
like a barley plant
in three dimensional space
the dry external covering 

A snarl of fibrous hairs

Drifting in circles
wind   heat   cold  drought
and dead white the barley plant
cut down 

Deboned and buried

Then the reading brain
follows one letter after another
beyond the edges
of a page

One millionth one millionth of a second
an episode