[He stopped part way across the field to]
He stopped part way across the field to
sit down and rest. An eagle
descended from the sky and an angel with the face of death
Before I had a name
I came out of a place where there wasn’t a door
holding my breath
in slippery hands. Door to wall
and back again. The things these were
The modified currents of air
at which the dancers are taught to stare
whenever they turn
to go but instead fall over
at the idea of taking an ordinary walk
for example to the Post Office
or a restaurant. And all the original atoms
of water and skin
we think we can find there
if we try. This is not Alaska
and the sun-dial
is not the sun secretly dying
during the night
Copyright Credit: Michael Palmer, "[He stopped part way across the field to]" a part from The Book Against Understanding from The Lion Bridge: Selected Poems 1972-1995. Copyright © 1998 by Michael Palmer. Used by permission of New Directions Publishing Corporation.
Source: The Lion Bridge (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 1998)