Mark Tardi

instead of entrance Goodbye means Avoir Sved’s dream said from nowhere of aliquant angles some spindle of the sun empirically facted deafening skin open and afterwards a cough is a couch idled into without rain an island easily a third worse Indigo with a flame-red tongue

“A skeleton’s mouth makes few concessions to prettiness.” —Jacques Joubert Because your mouth is violet and you cannot speak Because maybe I like Thursdays the way I used to hate baths, and baths are boundaries whose sharpness will be blurred with more information Because movement itself is a form of currency Frozen in articulations Because don’t indulge yourself in the idea of restraint The blackened patches could have been pubic hair on dead bodies, or simply the wildness of neglect without horizons or spaces Because it’s a comfort to know waste is the fuel of contradictions a knife rusted before its first use Because in the barest of rooms, nothing is comprehensible Neither fanatic nor mystic Because the first weeks of September came and went and the weather held Not woven by innocent hands Because this stasis is preparation Because you’re deceased, maimed or in Philadelphia

_______________________________________________________ there is no door, almost nothing, oblique figures _______________________________________________________ beneath the columns of false marble _______________________________________________________ returned, removed, moonless as an estimate, circle dancing _______________________________________________________ like a mineral _______________________________________________________ possibly a raised sanctuary _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ verse 7 informed my lingering curiosity _______________________________________________________ pallor than grass _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ was not red (J’ai ta lettre datée “En Mer”) _______________________________________________________ minor litanies _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ misshapen pearl, problem or promise _______________________________________________________ walls & windows, crawling graveyards _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Do not write this version. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ The manuscript has been lying for centuries _______________________________________________________ groaned or grunted. passed on _______________________________________________________ was it Sappho or Telesilla _______________________________________________________ the space between re- and in- _______________________________________________________ a long-broken line. _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ is it or is it or not either _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ of some oblate vessel _______________________________________________________ of some ageless stone _______________________________________________________ alabaster or avenue _______________________________________________________ pressed perhaps, or rather _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ This will be counting. _______________________________________________________ This will be the blank new page _______________________________________________________ (C should have been inserted above) _______________________________________________________ compressed & chromatic, semi-tones & minor ninths, broken chords _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ polysemous, radiating. If there were _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ Two mirrors stare at each other _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ terse. (“a dactyl equals a spondee” or “one citadel equals two cities”) _______________________________________________________ straight lines blocks boxes binds _______________________________________________________ models originally real deathless _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ the principal protagonist was never painted _______________________________________________________ forgotten or perhaps the opposite _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ reliquary jar in the shape of a jar _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ symphonies on a dead left hand _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ spent horses & hyphens _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ taut fibers _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ of nows millimetric measure reciprocal blues _______________________________________________________ equivocal and faint _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ with no organs _______________________________________________________ A child’s dream of a mouth—fugue fingers _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ vertical to the horizon _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ (someone was mumbling about 76 ways of looking at a black word) _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ of the no need of the moon to shine in it _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ It was not a story to pass on. _______________________________________________________ mummified intact neutral tones in turn _______________________________________________________ moving towards _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________