Image

There are
sticks there
a stack of sticks there
that means something

or does it?

sometimes a stack of sticks
is just a stack of sticks
independent
life
that's the trick, my boy
efficacy

or, as the old bastard would say
just what the fuck is this, really?
meaning
not so much what IS it
but WHAT DOES IT DO?
is its life

justified
slotted into a narrative
that is not destructive
or is it a token of our oppression?

(the bars on the cell door
the flagpoles of the ice cold monster
the pikes leading

us into the valley of the shadow
of the things THAT PEOPLE KNOW

what, for instance,
have THEY [US]
to say
about some sticks

that lie
synchophantic dogs

marching
in line --)

sometimes sticks
are never just sticks
what are they?


Lake Leelanau
7-29-2009