the lowercase god

SELF PORTRAIT WITH THE RADIO ONLast night I might have had Retsina

and not cut myself shaving before bed

had it not been for wishing to be elsewhere,

goaded by the mirror to hurry, to clear

its view of the room. Tonight

will end much the same: watching

a woman's hands pretend to know

the piano keys, wishing to be fixed

inside the song. When you visit

the Oracle, it's best to have your question

in mind as well as written on your hand.

While a live rabbit or lamb might travel

better than a statue, both are necessary

forms of appreciation. The spoils

of conquest or dumb luck, too.

Laid against itself, notated in

the player's and composer's mind,

shadow becoming shadow and back

again, to solid. The after-effect,

peripatetic, multiphasic. If watered

into bloom, again in the room, a hand

coaxing a hand to become real.

This could be the thing that lasts;

Makes physical, thought. Is this

how to remember? This could

be the things that lasts.