Conjure. Rae Armantrout
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am
“getting away”
“with”
PINOCCHIO
Strand. String.
In this dream,
the paths cross
and cross again.
They are spelling
a real boy
out of repetition.
Each one
is the one
real boy.
Each knows
he must be
wrong
about this, but
he can’t feel
how
The fish
and the fisherman,
the pilot,
the princess,
the fireman and
the ones on fire
TOUCHED
More than a fistful
of stubby green fingers
pushing up through gravel.
And blades, hearts, clubs
cut fine figures too.
Each shape particular
and pushy.
Each a would-be
template,
I say.
Pick me.
I’m with the deranged.
Something’s very wrong.
There are masks
in offices.
Machines run the banks
and the power company.
If you aren’t my mother
or my son,
who are you?
And if you are,
why don’t you know me?
FORESIGHT
1
The way we gather
at the window, pointing
with funereal awe
to this thing
that isn’t one of us—
a doe
nibbling the lawn.
2
Reflections
staggered by ripples
at the feet
of quaint buildings
in paintings
on hotel-chain walls.
CLIP ART
Stroking her cheek,
I’m drawing
mirror image arcs
in the baby’s brain—
closed parentheses
left hanging.
Our topiary space.
PROMOTION
Then the evening
and the morning
were the last day.
But wasn’t I promoted
after I named everything?
In cartoons, each
impulse
gets its own
signature shape.
They foil one another
yet remain intact—
static dressed up
as “zany”
or “hectic.”
Here is the fur coat
gnawing wears.
Point to its pointed teeth.
THE JOB
Attending to verbal constructs
makes care long-term,
not acute,
which is for the best
because, though flawed,
each one is salvageable
or replaceable
unlike my flesh.
Words can be compared
with moments,
houses, trees, wires
wires, trees, houses.
All stand
on their marks.
Still,
there’s a lot of overlap.
I move my eyes
to make time.
I take their measure
and create a duplicate.
SPECULATIVE FICTION
1
The idea that producing a string of nonsense syllables
while pointing toward an object
may cause that object to change
is common in children on the verge of language.
The idea that force exists only
as an interaction between objects
while an object
is a kind of kink
in a force field.
The idea that, if one survives X number of years,
one will live to see how things “turn out”
or even that things “end well.”
2
In the future we will face new problems.
How will we represent the variety of human types
once all the large animals are gone?
As sly as a mother;
as hungry as an orphan?
POSE
So the problem we pose