Mandible Wishbone Solvent

After “Oracle/Hero” by Howard Smith

roped in incremental ghost tens
              future tens  clairvoyant tens          home tens

blue slips beneath the exposed wing
tilt then seam then an angle spent all inside
the distance between thumb and thimble and fingerprint


              height exceeds then brims
              makes a solvent of it


     what vaunted green excess enclosed in each skimmed year then the years
              vanquished any fuchsia sky
the excess leaking forward filmed aqua
                                            filled aqua

fastened by ulna by increments of ten
fortunes sidled with
what have we when we give the mandible the fragments by
           tens?
tender tilt at ninety degrees to unearth
blue slips beneath the exposed wing
              continents
              contain
              futures
you
              be here

                              you
                                           be here tender tilt
                                           remiss in skies
                                           scant excess enclosed in a film that gives more than
                                           brimmed solvents to wrest time

Notes:

This poem was originally commissioned by the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York for the Exercises in Togetherness event at PUBLICS.

Source: Poetry (March 2022)