argument
w. words less obscure than these
bodies in apartments just like these—
w. fears like anybody wd have
in times as charming—& soft skin
& walls doing lousy
keeping down wind
w. words written w. light into verses
i.
black & white Y behind X
Y’s face contoured & pressing
to back of X’s left shoulder
down looking down & what wd
it mean X seems to think
—& wd say to Y—to own
anything at all for us now at all
—seams bursting—
there & then in
Queens sun creeping
over Flushing then Corona following
Seven into Manhattan & radiator
steam filling air in apartments all around
just like this one they stand outside
surrounding them there yes yes X seems
to see Y think—& X repeats—
all those bodies in apartments
just like this &
all who hear second hands tick
& water droplets drip from sinks
in two different rooms
ii
& these two w. hands all four clutched
in front of X’s heart
X’s breath heating them warm
shadows cast leeward away
we think Y’s eyes mark Y’s audience
so incredibly beautiful Y’s contour
visible & distinct & absent
in shadow Y’s face absorbs
& to describe that wd be the job
of poets from many ages ago
who knew a different sense
of appreciation for speculations
for chiaroscuro
& lights of shadows & form & mythical
dimensions of appreciations
who cd carve chiaroscuro
w. words less obscure than these verses
fabricated from concrete visions
of gelatin silver as this
iii
only together this photo
poised as sculpture for seconds
in lives begun like lives all around
brilliantly bended in time
Queens wrestling autumn & crawling
suspiciously as forms bonding
& unbound to one another
& bound only to one another
gripped & woven—threaded
Steven Alvarez is the author of the novels in verse Manhatitlán, McTlán, Tonalamatl, and the Fence Modern Poets Prize winning The Codex Mojaodicus. His work has appeared in the Best Experimental Writing, Anomaly, Asymptote, Berkeley Poetry Review, Fence, MAKE, The Offing, and Waxwing.
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Heavy Feather Review 