Long After (Mallarmé)
irony and pity, some ghosts, some
little pictures of ghosts, some
ancient visual
history of ghosts, livid ghosts and
tiny ghosts, ghosts of rubies
ghosts of diamonds. Once politique,
not any more. You can’t say
it that way. Not any more. Ghostly
light of appropriation. Appropriate
ghost. Sad clown, you are
nothing possible. What’s a dot com
anyway? Nothing that was , (I say).
I could sit all day, cat
at my feet. Assertion as
comfort, certain as death.
Appropriate garden,
leafy leaf. Can’t see
at all, small
child on the water, can’t
see at all.
Fabricated landscape,
can see it all
jar, hill.
Prior encounter,
Fall. What will dot com?
Nothing that is.
Cloud, power of ten.
Poem Zero. Hello.
―Published Best American Poetry, 2002, edited by Robert Creeley