Liz Waldner

 

The Indefinite Past

 

common irregularities

 

the light of day

the weight of the others

 

 

orthographic changes

 

/a(T)/he®ON/(A)light

(BREATHES) W(H)E(N)I(T)G(RIEVES)H(ER)T

 

 

general considerations

 

a road enscrolled its mountain with cars

a little white feather caught by its quill

 

 

one's own irregularities

 

the sadness of a windowscreen,

a wood-framed windowscreen

 

 

 

 

In the Lost Key of the Perfect Tense

 

The clouds vanished and I could see

What I saw was inside me

 

'Saw' is 'was' turned around

'Was' turned around

is 'Now' going to be

 

The clouds—

 

What I—

 

 

It no longer works.

There's nothing now

A prayer can seed.

 

 

 

 

All Experience A Door

 

that leads back to the Self.

I've kept trying to get one

by means of buying a house.

No house yet.

 

With the usual self as the lower portion of the fire stick

and the syllable OM as the upper part of it

by the practice of generating the flame of knowledge

the wise burns all her bondage.

 

 

 

 

Woman With A Pen

 

the white page. the gilded age.

the sons of money. the guns of war.

take precedence. take reticence.

leave alone not-knowing, for fear.

 

cadence. sibilance.

cede sentience.

sentence: cored order.

apple-eaten, warder.

 

territory. memorial.

materiel, escutcheon.

battlement. bafflement.

dress whites, wives, bludgeon.

 

blooded blooms, corporal portal.

littoral. vaguely heard.

water-walled. ever-hooded.

clitoral. vagus-nerved, mortal.

 

 

 

 

The Three in One but One (O NO)

 

The gleam of what is finished

 

The impress of fear                              on the soft language of presence

 

 

The shadow's distinction                      the exacting edges

 

The deity of symmetry                         preserve us from

 

 

The metal face                                    the same metal screw

 

For eye and mouth

 

 

Forgive us                            forever                            undone