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Five Poems Christina Mengert

Sonnet Inside blaze      earthly figuration the lover in pieces at the mouth of a river the lover in pieces in the mouth look down a hand at the dirty bank      same bank different river the logic of love’s insistent metonymies      overhead the sky measures the burning fires distance between dynamic constellation please extinguish the lover falls under wide open the sky a mouth and feasting this broken sweet unsatisfied substance Beloved Call the body husk weight      cleft of breath nailed earth then sky time, no time alive, beautiful, bare the point at which on the vine becomes you’ll find her Waking Vision Of all the skies that come in protest      and say in protest how far then is this far?      If there is a music about proximity   relations of sound which feed upon each other   so to refigure    it is the music of a solemn speculation      at the window      count the fingers on the hand      press them then look —      it is not a hand      all the skies between what was and is Late Radiant Unquiet remains      gnarled and petrified      the sound of petrifying      is the sound of expansion      glass pushing its squares out and out      heaving world in her wake Visionary Fixed and tethered sight      a tongue’s wintered eyes wintering at streets      shores      the blur of escaping birds without law      he says      there can be no transgression without transgression      stillness only      we’ll wait where the lines intersect      for someone something to pass nothing in this world is still      he says      stand there you’ll see □