Allegro Moderato
The word “We” is celebrating the New Year.
The word “I” begins the New Year
with rapture verses reason, difference between
caste of mind verses state of mind,
unfinished verses fluent style.
Descartes believed in no final ends,
studied admiration
verses Kantian sublime—the origin of tears.
Descartes himself was an anatomist,
dissected a skull, studied the brain,
wrote on a skull, then later on
(translated by silly us)
“the most important thing was to write,
that would please on account of its style alone.”
I tell myself later Paul Valéry wrote
off the cuff ex cathedra:
“Everything written with precision
is as good as indestructible, a monument.”
(A soliloquy: I’m trapped.
I write to be read aloud,
speak extra lines to make clear who’s speaking—
my echoing pronouns, cheap theatrics.)
New York City is not a poem. I remember
buildings built with architectural precision,
early 20th Century temples,
destroyed for business reasons.
I’d rather give attention to the precise
Hanging Slaughtered Ox by Rembrandt
seen as the body of Christ.
The word “We” hung and hooked.
“I” is just a rib.
* * *
We recall history differently.
Your Aeschylus was killed precisely
by a falling turtle dropped on his bald head
by an eagle, who thought his head was a rock.
On Aeschylus’ headstone, no words he’d written,
something like:
Take word to the Eleusians, here lies one
who fought the Persians.
I, an intruder from unstable infanthood,
I was not allowed to feel We, I
was often told: Who are you to think?
I never slept in a bed that fit—
I sometimes thought I was not,
therefore I ached to become “We.”
We, my dog Rumba and I, slept together.
Lovers wrap around each other. Opposites
can be man and man, woman and woman,
but man and woman are not opposites
like the days of the week, except the Sabbath
that may be Friday, Saturday, or Sunday,
depending on this or that religion.
There are “I” and “We” prayers
for the God fearing.
Jesus prayed to himself, John 17.
There are prayers for men,
prayers for women to say,
prayers for different times of day.
By the way, does God fear mankind?