i want you to see this, but you won't . . .

[bix02138]

from poet brian teare

From “[ Adam ]in fragments/with a poem engraved/down the thighs”
After Archilochos

His body not pastoral

Fragment—musculature

Suggests the word

Slur : curving a phrase

To completion—yet not

Knowable whole, as flesh

Descends[ and here

The paper burnt ]curl

Hung in curl, damp[ and here

The speaker, burnt, whispers

Anatomy ]please[ and here

The paper ]plexus[ between

Fingers ]pubis[ whispers

Please ]shadow down

[. . .]

What damage desires

Text, suffers surface

To abrade, puncture,

lacerate? Here white thighs

And the poem[ here

The paper deteriorates ]

And the body of the poem

[ The paper gets worse ]

Having what mouths

[ Holes ]I cannot forgive

him the elegy[ but here

The paper is torn ]mending

The kiss, sewing cuts inside

[. . .]

What damage desires

Anatomy—musculature

To fragment, puncture,

Lacerate? Here white thighs

Suggest the word Slur: curving

A phrase to completion—

Yet the poem descends to

[ Here the paper burnt ]curl

Hung in curl, damp[ And

Here the paper deteriorates ]

And the body of the poem

[ The paper gets worse ]

Having what mouths

[ Holes ]cannot forgive

Him the elegy[ and here

The paper ]plexus[ between

Fingers ]pubis[ whispers

Please ]chiseling the kiss

Engraving desire with cuts

inside

---

© brian teare

april is poetry month, isn't it?

Comments

[leafshimmer.livejournal.com]

Shivery and sensuous!

I recall reading, or maybe my Greek professor told me (long long ago and far far away, in another galaxy called the Seventease) that there is a poem of Archilochos that only survives as written on somebody's mummy wrappings. Seems an odd place to put a poem, doesn't it? I can imagine a typical scholarly edited translation of what's left reading much like this poem.

[tkn1114.livejournal.com]

love this. Thanks.