Purlieus

purlieu n. A piece of land set apart from an ancient royal forest by perambulation of its boundaries; a part lying adjacent; outskirts; environs.

 

so

seeing

 

seeing
the sorrow

the torment
of thinking

 

of thinking
torment

 

or a slender
swaying

a bit of
dangling

 

a wisp
in the parting
*
so

to conceive
an image

 

the squalor
of a certain
tenderness

if only
stillness

 

or
an image of

in its veil

 

even if

unburdened
glistening

 

even if

another veil

 

*

 

so

staying

 

staying
the known

that most intimate
within

without

 

ambling

as other

as other
things

 

fragments

 

the heart
its splendour

forgiveness
its exhaustion

 

*

 

so

induced

by these
and other givens

 

unchosen

gifts of time

 

timely gifts
of loss
and abandon

 

cherished

or fields

which would fade
if only if

 

*

 

so

denied
that refusal

 

as if space
and its lesions

 

and so
refused
that denial

 

that world
to enfold

 

but rather
unfold

and lessen

 

enquire

of the dead

 

the chill waters

the leaf’s
silence

 

*

 

so

to remain

 

remain blind

as another

 

to heal

to believe
and deny

that other

 

sovereign tether

to assumption

that untoward

 

and trace
the unfolding

 

recover
grace

the staggered
breath

 

August 24, 1994—April 4, 2003