“I stay, I go: I am a pause” —Octavio Paz
“We measure time in set amounts— seconds, minutes, and hours.
But the way time feels is more slippery.” —Shayla Love, in Tonic 12/3/18
Time is Slippery and I’m a Pause
1.
i make way through town
in December which flows
like the river i just crossed
i see i hear always interrupted
always of myself
i am a pause
i meet slippery time
like a bridge abutment
which splits the whole of joy apart
until i slip and join ahead behind
and see touch and hear
by laws
2.
I flows through town
in December which is the river
I just crossed
I sees, hears, uninterrupted
always of itself —doesn’t pause
I shifts slippery time
around bridge abutments
is the whole of joy past cause
I shifts and joins ahead behind,
sees hears touches
past laws.
Jim Culleny
12/7/18
© 2018