Asylum,
By Jana Prikryl
like when I can’t sleep I say to myself
the the the the
the
the
the—
each article drenched to the bone in the
belief it attends something solid,
fond belief, always being
cut in on—the
the
the
the the the the the the
does the trick if I can stick with it
not get swept into narrative, that shock brigade
all tell, if by shock they mean hit
the the the the the the the the
papers say asylum is temporary
now, true, what’s not that’s able to
maintain its potency, you wake up
from a spell in that genre of safety, relative
safety, what saved you
making as if the story were widely shared
until you saw them as-if otherwise and then
what saved you was seeing their look, saying
resemblance too may be at any time revoked so
must be made the most
of,
seeing it then, seizing
the minute dismounting with the foot
trained as a dancer to keep you traveling because
they’d slept and, refreshed, moved the the the the
papers expired, it’s their turn now
to really live
Source: Poetry (March 2019)