Public-Twisted Neural Processes Are Our Singular Non-Illusory Link With a Socially Constituted World

Painting by John William Waterhouse


Public-twisted Neural Processes Are Our
Singular Non-Illusory Link With a Socially
Constituted World
(a poem written after reading Merleau-Ponty
while listening to Ravel’s Bolero)


A pre-established circuit sparked,
tiny glitters
Of lozenge-shaped fires, fires stacked
As if gold ores on a shipping cart,
the circuit
Pre-established by cinema short-cut,
fluffed, curled white gold blonde hair
with wriggling flickers,
Body wiggles, fused like a collage, with
With brokenhearted smoke puffs
from handrolled
Cigarettes on corners of backseat
slurred comments.

This inward neural network upset established
Historical categories, the fear
of the iron knob
On the instrument that resembled
a fishing pole
That would put a bump on the inattentive
sleeper’s skull
When the sermon condemned Chinese painted
Fingernails, tattooed stigmatas,
clothing hung
Of a cypress bare out
-extended tw-
ig.

She, Proserpine,
Vaporous, a solitary tango dance, her dark,
flat,
Skull-cap hair a solitude,
the Styx.


Duane Locke

Posted over on Ken Again