these dazzling couplets

 

STICHOMANCE


“First turn to me… you come inside me sideways as always”

 —Bernadette Mayer


maybe the rose

is lettering

absence


maybe the rose

is triumphant

blue instrument


having rushed down to the river

to see my own image 


pretending not to believe in lies


condemned as i am to partial blindness


having tattooed lines for 

earth my elective scar


maybe the rose

is divining a framework 


to restructure all 

wordless deficiencies


teased by yr succinct 

cock baby    


this poem’s a stichomance


my only hate my only 

love you come     sideways 


you come all morning 

but never arrive