VARIATIONS

 

Once upon a time there were three
billion bears. Ling. Dab.
Who studies happiness

 

now - busy crazy - who? This ABC
of Letting Go lets go - oh
look - or

 

deaf to the what-in-what - stunned/
back from hospital
on the way back

 

too back to the wall
my old dead
father

 

summer to winter to
beginning-spring
cutcutcut.

 

 

A fist tightened of a
sudden forgetting
itself

 

opens - glint in windowpane -
morning - cloudless -
sunlight -

 

a gull on a chimneypot -
dog in the
garden . . .

 

but to spend the time just so
dust in the
laneway

 

shadows across
birdsong

(bus

 

en route) falling floating -
falling
their

 

mesh diagonal over
surfaces that
tilt black

 

ribbons into dark green pools then
wait - answer - expand the
view: Tuesday/sharp.

 

What you need here are millions of precise steel tools.
[p 255]

 

At the Question-Wall though at the heart of
the Lattice/Oh let me be
faithful to

 

your humble among your
polysnobberies
(otherweb

 

elsewhere take
over take
cover)

 

- translate then scuff
the slate &
play - 

 

busy crazy too & so my heart
in the constricted thing
(stung) o saisons o chateaux

 

the petty business of freedom
the solo the
hopeless

 

& no end to the wriggle of the mind &
no relief whatever anywhere ever
to be had.

 

So. Born to be slaves & monkeys forever?

 

I'll go down among the people on foot
tonight/bees in the plum blossoms
busy crazy/

 

gag the pack-of-dogs thinking
in my head trapped &
travelling in

 

isolation here/to get to the
temple hot with its punctual
flock (cut granite)

 

to get to the company of those never
practising freedom never
or isolation

 

pencreelhive
fireiceor
toyes

 

you me everybody
each isola
SPACE

 

 

I parted my hand to refocus
took pen from jacket
& began to

 

write down the noises
I thought I could
hear a leaf

 

make falling hitting
the other
branches

 

angl-
ed twist-
ing

 

in the canopy in
transit to land
on my page-

 

top here on the table-top
bid bead bed bod then/
then delete that oh

 

just another born-again
quietist waiting to
bite back. But

 

no. Check the micro-
scope. What? Iris
& lilac.

 

 

Wait a minute I only want
six sections with a break at
five & the insertion of this
here would make a seventh in
total &/rest happiness peace/

 

 

You me everybody
each isola
aching

 

waking up to/in
desolation in
the grey

 

nothing of nothing
(touch me) noting
& (dot)

 

doting over tight co-woven
anti-original
half-

 

things/iris & lilac
busy & crazy. Who studies
happiness now?

 

Split. So.
Decided.
Together

 

dotdot wrapped up in
themselves &
about to/

 

happiness? Back to
the wall. I'll
go down

 

tonight shedding shredding
the personal
rubbish

 

that
clung
so 

 

 

O now I wouldn't do that.

 

Tiny
temple-silhouette -
crisp serrations -

 

barely visible. If you look up
do you see heaven?
Once

 

upon a time. Cling to the
rung. Don't look
down

 

(to how many teddybears
having how much fun
anyway?)

 

tree-shimmer tree-towering tree-whisper
tree-cold that shapes &
holds - don't -

 

in the/it's a destroying fire a supralucent
liquid there if either then
but definitely

 

four children two adults under a plane tree
in the rain suddenly -
mine - bare - 

 

network of billions of microscopic
delicate precise
dots 

 

in the dance
improvised
& manic

 

that fits the magnetic lock's
secret internal
crease &

 

is sucked
into
its 

 

slit/quick/the key
& dissolved
in a hiss 

 

of acidic steam - the sky/sparrows
busy in the clematis on the
wall/

 

who studies
happiness
now 

 

needles tickle the vacancy
plum blossoms bees
busy & crazy 

 

sprinkle water/mutter-mutter for solace
happiness where was I? Stunned
back o yes

 

to wet fingers/dance/before entering
& leave before the end of
ceremonies

 

^{0 0 0}

 

To
honour
the light
on the
pool the
rain made
on the foot-
path without
a sound
last night
hardly a
sound a
lightness
outside a
window out
of the blue
flower the
mind is
(too) then
/what must
we do?/
then yes
a:b:c:
touch taste
this is
the lifespan
spread on
a windowpane
glisten-spirit
back &
forth back
& forth
across
fields to
the hospital
under the
trees whose
pods underfoot
brittle in
grass as
you tackle
the echo
ing/the
hard-nosed
hard-eyed
hard-necked
hard-hearted/
dead-dead
it said
a Crow
loud into
an incinerator/
hand up
Sanity evap-
orate Death/
touched.
Touched
suddenly
suddenly
awake.

  

⁰

 

---

© Maurice Scully