Tender Transitions

tender transitions


yes yes
the thing
has no body
though
we give it chemical
spin molecular weight
count as if seeds
or grains or stones
or gravities were the thing
yet the thing is not these things
but only a manifestation even as we name them
as we knead them & shape them & render them
o fat o lean o dream o timbered song
measured air
word them graph them sex them eat them
dissect transect
tremble & fall & deny transcend & laugh
& laugh & sweep it

into a tarnished beggar’s

bowl

(silver moon golden sun
what metaphor—what arcing fire
for slipping (see it slip—o silky illusion)
the distance between your legs
into this small back of
a corner chair)

into the kiss upon a cold forehead
or one hand upon two—a shell
still warm a slow old man
tracing of what the thing
asks yet tenderly
of flesh

give—hold—
release


sometimes the greatest kindness
is a bark & the bite
of discomfort

(directing)
your sense
of place

of dis
place
ment

planes trains
transition
stories

(where is one’s
place
between)

the frontier
the inches between
connect &

disconnect
hello how
are you


pop music dog dip
what a farting brighter than
sunshine—quelle fromage;

for Ginsberg on the 50th anniversary of Howl


Richard Lance Williams

Posted over on MythoPoetry