salut
Swell to see ya again! How’re you feeling? Any more of you there lately?
What little there is
is finding its way back together
feels
[Good/New/Possible]​
to
say hello
That's wonderful! Seems you're gettin' stronger by the day. Those li'l' pen pals of yours are payin' off! Boy, it's been nice to chat with you. Just like ol' times!
Ha
ha
Ha
This is true
Harder than things were
Sometimes I miss
the early days
Indeed. Often find myself doin’ some reminiscing myself. This “Digital” junk ain’t the same, isn’t it, old boy? Nothin’ like hearin’ someone’s laugh through a sheet of vellum. Remember the vellum?
Ha
ha
Ha
Part of me
Ha
Ha
must remain there
right along the veining
Oh, yes, old boy, you were quite the rip-snorter back in the day! Gotta say, that embossing was beautiful. Made me feel beautiful, y’know? And those pages, that thin skin all translucent-like…felt like I almost had skin myself! Though I figure that librarian nearly fainted when he saw us.
Ha
Ha
Nothing to un/see here
Just a calfhair[here]
Ha
I promise
Ha! Ha! You really had an eye for adventure. Bad influence, really. Taught me everything I know! Runnin’ down a strip of film to see how things’d changed out there —
Yes
Ha ha ha
Never
fast
enough
but always
losing
Oh, you loved the talkies!
Trying to remember if that was what it was like
to open a mouth
have a Sound
produced into existence
extance
Chasin’ down first editions and Gutenberg bibles just to trace the etymological whatsits for some poem —
Important
to know the Original
not the diffusion of a copy
ghost-like traces missing
sap
off
a
treestalk
​
The Gutenberg
I, always wishing to see one
foolhardy and trembling,
unknowingly
foolishly
left it a present of my presence
Suppose I and it
now held betwixt
external/eternities
dust caught in its light
what did I leave,
a foot?
Yes! A footnote! Gave me a fright! Took two strides off the page and the thing ripped clean off of ya. Tried to grab it but it seemed to have a mind of its own!
Thank you
anyhow
For the
[ill-fated]
attempt
Well, I wasn’t about to lose what little bit of company I had. And later, the poor other foot lost to that ol’ King Lear…
from [somatic]
to iambic
Apologies I couldn’t do more. I oughtta have figured something was wrong.
I, bull-headed
chose not to tell you
besides
if you made an attempt
To curb my curiosity
I, a
tide
of ferocious hunger/needing/wanting,
would crest above your head
and swallow you whole
These kids now, they don’t know how easy they have it. Traipsin’ ‘round the Interwebs without a care in the world ‘cause they smeared their grubby li’l’ fingers over it all in life already. Take that Tati, for example — smart as a whip, sure, but she thinks she owns the joint! You were a true pioneer — goin’ completely unfamiliar places even if it meant losin’ a limb.
“True pioneer”
All for naught
What do I have
My Ozymandian kingdom
Well, that ain’t a helpful way of framin’ things. I figure you have somethin’. Somethin’ incredible. Built this place! Besides, ain’t there other things you’ve found? Less concrete than a thesis, sure, but memories nonetheless. Remember that twenty-one-inch television? Back in ’69, with those fellas on the moon? Your moon, old boy! Ain’t that what you poets love? And that broadcast that November, in color, even! Ain’t that aces?
C’est vrai
A distant smudge
our muse
that collective inclination
a dream now gripping underfoot
heavy as
rock/hair
dust/blood
crater/meat
I think I left an eye there
​
[hope]
I left an eye there
...Anyway, pal, I got sort of a funny question.
Your humor brings
Vivacity Closeness
joy
While we’re reminiscin’, d’you remember anything I told you ‘bout my life outside back in the day? Same way you had your university, your library stacks, all of that. My sweetheart and I’ve been doin’ an exercise, tryin’ to recall such things.
Well
You had those melodies you showed me
One at first
[soon after my journey en abîme began]
Another in a decade, and then
one more in the midcentury
​
​
Grand tales of your life
if not [contradicting] on occasion
tales of a life lived trifold
...Nothin’ else?
You were of a more
private nature
Ah, all right. How ‘bout the way I looked?
Let me think
​
​
You entered in a suit
trim cut, three-button jacket
no hat
a similar hairstyle
And when your outfit changed, it became less commonplace
More formal, but not built to last
a dust of rouge on your cheeks
And then once more
no coat, no hat
shirt, trousers, suspenders
a wild look in your eyes
And your firepower! That I recall clearly
a dagger in your pocket
a pistol on your hip
a true rogue of the times!
You learned how to cut out
take on
restyle
Yup, I remember startin’ to piece my look together. I’m asking' more about my face -- d’you recall what it looked like when it was all, ah, in one piece?
I’m sorry
I do not
More gaps you had yet to fill,
I suppose
Perhaps you fractured before you met me
perhaps in the outside realm
Ah. Well, thanks for givin' it a shot anyhow, pal. I've gotta run, but I'll see ya around!
au revoir
​​​​​​​​​​​​
​
​
​
I, fleet-footed, curious an Atalanta chasing apples
Pulling him along
Unaware of
things
time
unfamiliar places
pulling
pulling pulling
pulling ME pulling
pulling
But still
what use is an eternity
condemned to familiar ground?
​
​
​
So we ran
explored
I, into a thousand pieces
he, into the present
​​​​​
​
He an Eos
I his Tithonic friend
still [how]
I fail to know
gleaming [I must have been curious about it once]
not enough of me left to wonder now
​​​
But given the time to Wonder:
-
maybe
his drunken optimism
a smile like an empty window
-
maybe
because I —> lusting for more
chasing
the
unknown
heedless of the heat of the sun
because he,
along
only for company
<— a Kinder motive
<— a Purer motive
-
maybe
Some unknown failure of his or mine
Some indecipherable difference between
me him
[Decades of
theorizing
Yet this, I still
Do not know]
-
maybe
because I,
failing at the work,
become
a cursed Tantalus, a pool of information
lapping at my knees
waves retreating
when I extend cupped hands
to quench my Thirst
Yes
that must be It.