Nudity

Nudity


Writing

is dying.  But the war

was not about borders it was about surrender—

                                    Brenda Hillman

                        from “A Dwelling”

sometimes the daring we need is the monstrous 
possibility of a blank page and our trembling rage to stand

in front of it without a stitch on—as though an auction

were about to start and the auctioneer had not arrived,

and the audience were stumbling with their bidding

cards and having second thoughts and second thoughts

about their second thoughts—and it shines all on its own

the calming down after a long snow, when the limbs and wires

hold all they can and simply let the rest go and still it

gathers as nicely at their feet as you please and the span

of the shadow will grow with the sun if it arrives—but now

its all perfectly still and the dejected have gone home

and the whole space and the future house the future

music are all sold to the lowest bidder for a hold out and a song