An encounter at a waterfall in 1943 or maybe a year later

not to be abusive exactly
nor to be kind exactly
but to cut him down

they are not unkind

everything you need to know about this other human
can be understood from this congress of cavities
there is not much movement in it
by any geological considerations
but if you swim into it

oh put it here quick do it, she/he says in a voice
that opens him wide

he accepts it
as some crude distinction
at once limiting
and trivial -- O

think of this congress of the soft parts like excavated shellfish

warmed a little
sliding together in the twilight
a hum gathers over all of it
bells ring across the city at dawn
some emergency surely
they look for babies in the rubble
fog slides

their mouths move together
like shellfish now without shells
blind things mouthing without mouths

broken shell of a creature underfoot*

this is no longer confusing
he accepts it and goes far away
all the fight gone out of him
his mouth and his heart always ready
to say the same thing
if only it would be asked of him




* nothing