Advances
seventy wingbeats
per second
vagaries of vegetation, rosy
anticipation I
turn the page without
reading
essence of
accident
what is the strongest
motive what
drives the solar wind
time’s not so
old, dating only
from the creation
New England has
cooled significantly, icy
core with a sooty coating
this ice
hard to break—the brain
will have to wait
catharsis of the
vulture, obligatory
vespers
a bat, painted the
color of joy, head
downward because
the brain is
heavy I put on
music but don’t always
listen
whether magma could
rise to where tones reach
audible frequencies
modest success with a late
parasitic moth we will soon
find out if all this
is true
sudden drain on the
heart, more
doubt, the big
melt: anything
gone is
replaced
Copyright Credit: Keith Waldrop, "Advances" from Analogies of Escape. Copyright © 1997 by Keith Waldrop. Reprinted by permission of Burning Deck Press.
Source: Analogies of Escape (Burning Deck Press, 1997)