A scow carried the last of the night
                                                  upriver and in the first light
I thought I could read the pitched sheaves of limestone rising from
           the bank to the bluffs.
I thought about how this moment and the next and the next would
           house the past —
Chronicles, grammars, a welt that rises, layers set down one upon the
           last.
What is the survival value, I asked, of suffering? The river, a dragon
           of smoke, stayed mum.

                                   ‡

To distort perception, to bend the light a little, as if a skewed view
           presented a more accurate depiction,
I let the sentence unspool faster than it is gathered up, and unspooled,
Or at least not winding back taut, the slack it creates a kink and the
           kink a snarl and the snarl a mess,
And as I was saying, the thing-said gets ahead of itself.
                                                                               Say what you
           mean and mean what you say,
My comp teacher advised, but to this day I know nothing of what I
           mean until I've said it.

                                   ‡

From rust to sage to silver,
                                       the chameleon moved through the
           terrarium: a slink, a dart,
Tail counter-balancing its sinuous advance, head tilted as if in
           thought,
As if it took thought to orient itself, to foreground nothing and, in
           particular, itself.
It is said that the soul embodied as a lizard can slip from a sleeper's
           mouth,
Wander about for the night and return. The sleeper awake
           remembers the soul's path.

                                   ‡

Given a choice, I prefer the jasmine's night bloom over the indefinite
           article.
Good cheer, a single smile, over the ripped sieve of the signifier.
I wring what I can from the cloth, use a long stick for leverage, look
           to Polaris to find my way,
Wrap common straw around the spindle of the axis mundi,
                                                                                    That said,
           y is not x,
And perhaps there are other ways to solve for those particular values,
           perhaps better proofs.