Said to Have Been Heard to Say Hush
—“mu” ninety-eighth part—
Remembered moment lamenting
its exit, the anaphylactic aria
fell away. What beauty promised or
we projected faded, we moved
on,
not’s province the place we
now camped in… The abandoned
ones we averred we’d someday
be
fell away as well. The abandoned
girl and boy blended in… Thought’s
province it was we pitched our tents
in.
Wind wrinkled our foreheads, thought
not’s not someday… Not made every
eye water. In our heads more than ever,
syl-
labic beads we thumbed, not’s dread
have-without-hold we bowed down to,
cried Cry blood, fell back… There
was a box inside my head, something
men-
acing shook it, Joe Henderson’s tenor.
Not’s woken-up-to now we backed away
from, Little Johnnie C, “Hobo Joe”…
In-
sistent, imposed itself, beside the point.
All of it was orphan song we chimed in
on, chided by it, charmed even so. I saw
no
light but said otherwise, lit by the thought
of it, not-light lytic, tear between said
and saw… Light stole away, some kind
of
spell I was under. At more removes
than there was ground for, I stole away
as well, said to have been heard to
say hush. A tiptoe ghost octet fidgeted
be-
hind us. Not was another name for
death I was afraid and afraid my feet
would fail, Idiot Footless, feet I did
in-
deed speak with, did indeed say hush…
A little bit of nothing, anaphylactic
rush, seen-say gone so soon we were
not’s
understudies. Whatever it was we did,
no matter what we did, whatever we did we
did away… No one heard footsteps, no
feet
struck the dirt. Earth beset by see-thru
sleep, transparent footprint, sleepwalk’s
his and hers an it club of late, the aban-
doned his and hers run come… In back
of
us the ghost octet kept at it, thread on
the box and on the backs of our necks,
hair stood on the backs of our necks.
Bal-
letic, they traipsed on tiptoe, shushed all
who stood and looked on. The sense we
were being shadowed had hold of us, the
sense
of being had we had… They were plotting
what it was to be footless, points on a graph
the ground had become. What it meant to
be
a tiptoe ghost we could see now, shushed
as we were, shadowed as we were, warned
we were better off away, beside the point,
not’s null insistence, moot… All the same,
they
doused us all in fish powder, a rite we were
none
the wiser
for
____________________
(slogan)
I saw no way to be wise enough. Tonal
motion made me weep. I saw no way to
stay where I was, be where I was, what-
ever it was I was moved on, moved over,
what-
ever it was worried what I was… So it
was green loomed outside my window,
drawn light in Low Forest I was wise to,
saw thru, aroused by light’s reluctance
but
not to be caught out, no way could I be
wise
enough I
knew