Poem 54

Dissociation and distance between … an Hataitai poem … the sunporch I lived in had barely enough room for a single bed … late home from town I sometimes ran through the unlighted bus tunnel, a uniquely disorienting experience …

… I included this in a photocopied manilla-folder-bound bunch of poems I produced called Smalls … the idea of the layout is that the poem like my dream of running unspools, stride after stride lengthening until it leaps off the page before it can reach its final word (which is provided by the title) …

Space

Cathy rolls over
tips of holly
willow and palm
move outside the window
rain slides down the glass
dimpled then smooth
she thinks of getting back to the kid
she thinks of getting back
I think of running in a tunnel
into black
arms outstretched to touch the walls

but they go


      feet loosening leaping



          great blank strides




                   forward leaning forward





                                  into