ARIA OF THE FALLING BODY

            after Alice Goodman


With no intent
Creation dissolves
And buries the
Living with the dead

That which is lost
Descends to the rock
Which lies rising
In the slurry wall

Before the war
In this spot of sky
We saw whiteness
Exposed to the sun

Bleached and burnished
Metal and white paint
Quickly stripping
Away from its line

I punched a hole
In the closed window
Remembering
I could do such things

And as worthless
As wasted papers
I fluttered forth
Falling to a sleep

That was just mine
No security
No air nor earth
No silent prayer

Inhaled deeply
Will be remembered
We are our gods
And final judges

Emptied of fate
And outside of time
We watched the world
Dissolve away and

Tumble skyward
Tackle emptiness
And fade into
Opaque forgetting

Study the code
This moving image
Magnifying
Bright flickering out


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