Graduations
I have before me a list of extensions
without names. But it seems not to go on forever,
because of horizon which, with
the slickness of a blade, a knife of
limitation, slashes time in two
I’ve ticked-off the list through many graduations,
sometimes with honors, sometimes
smeared against a wall of dreams since I’m
a creature of their reckless persistence,
their humiliations
But that irresistible incision far off, though closer now,
still draws me regardless of my self-shaped limitations,
my turnings from what is true
Jim Culleny, 4/16/23