1/30/2024

Loss of Memory

The dry, white mold

scraped 

from the pages 

of all your old books

and the ant-black ink

laid 

in your own hand

falling away 

along with it.


[LSS, 1/30/24]


1/28/2024

Magic Rub

Newell Brands produces the Prismacolor Magic Rub art eraser
I’ve used it to remove films of dried white mold
from my 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica
from the wrong line on a sketch of
Trachycardium egmontianum
from double entrendre postcards marked “return to sender”

I’ve used it on
photo albums, document files, refrigerator magnets
stakes marking last year’s collards, beans, and peppers
and inexplicably tarnished stainless steel spoons

here I am now, patiently erasing
everything I’ve forgotten

[RK, 1/28/24]
Starfish

there are 38 Coordinated Universal Time offsets, or “time zones”
complicating matters is the fact that time itself
is a human construct making it more difficult to communicate
in the world’s current 7,117 languages

the shortest measurable time span is
247 zeptoseconds, the time it takes a single light particle
to pass through a hydrogen molecule
and yet

Hindu texts define one day in the life of God as
3,110,400,000,000 years
here I am now, patiently waiting for that starfish
to open

[RK, 1/28/24]
 
Braids

I went online and searched <how do you braid rope>
a flock of red-winged blackbirds
set up a cacophony of 1950s pop songs about
cars, girls, surfboards, dancing, and falling in love under a boardwalk
off key and barely recognizable

searched for <existential red-winged blackbirds>
clicked enter and it returned
<Your search – existential red-winged blackbirds - did not match any documents>

searched for <what do we tow behind us>
a braided rope with hundreds of individual threads
led me backwards in hundreds of directions
here I am now, patiently unraveling
everything I’ve learned

[RK, 1/28/24]

1/13/2024

Resolute

The cave of the dark studio 

waiting for my return, 

the canyon of winter

and all of the people I’ve generated 

through passion and false memories, 

the heavy rope I’m towing, 

looking back before leaving 

this moment forever. 


[LSS, 1/13/24]


Midnight Snack I am stuffing my mouth with whole, rotting cantaloups, caravans of them, to avoid being the one who eats that precious...