Chapter One, Edited by HELMINA MILK


my father's infant tongue
I called myself
I came to be called
his tombstone

I never saw my father
and never saw my fancies
unreasonably derived
from the shape of letters
from the character and turn of the inscription

a childish sickly little stone
beside the grave

I am indebted for belief
born on the back
in the trouser-pocket of existence



ours within the wound
the first most broad identity
gained on a raw evening
this place
that infant
dead and buried
that dark flat
the dykes
and mounds and gates
the low leaden wind
the bundle growing

all and beginning



noise
up from the grave

keep still little throat

a grey man
soaked in water
smothered in mud
lamed by stones
cut by flints
stung by nettles
torn by briars

teeth in my throat
one more staring mouth



show the place I lay
among the alder-trees
upside down and emptied

there was nothing sudden and strong

I saw a tombstone trembling
the young dog licking his lips



fat cheeks

I was not strong
I couldn't shake his head
I held tighter to my crying

muttering
darkly looking
eyes looked into mine

mine looked

now look



you know a greater helplessness
he tilted me again
he tilted me again
he tilted me again
I have your heart and liver
he tilted me again

I clung to him



both hands upright
I dip and roll
on the top of the stone

fearful morning
you bring the lot to me
you never say a word
or make a sign



a person shall fail

go from my small heart
roasted and alone

the words I speak
a secret self
a heart
a door



warm in himself
comfortable and safe
creep and creep his way
and tear him open
harming the moment

now what do you say?



get him the broken morning
you don't remember

you remember
the wet frog
or eel
hugged shuddering in both his arms



I saw him go
among the nettles
among the brambles
bound in my young eyes

cautious grave
get a twist upon his ankle
and pull him in

legs
turn round for me
I saw him
turning my legs

shoulder the great stones
heavy in the marshes

another horizon
the sky a long red river

I seem to be standing upright
one beacon
a hope
an ugly thing

you were near
limping on towards life
coming back to me
I thought



I saw the cattle lifting their gaze

I looked all round for signs

2 comments:

Seraphine Ducasse (Editor) said...

Epigraph:

Plain Slipped Stitch: Insert needle from left to right in first stitch on left needle as if to knit it, then slip left needle out of stitch.
('Mon Tricot Knitting Encyclopedia' (Paris, 1989))

Seraphine Ducasse (Editor) said...

Sometimes all that obscures a work of literature is an excess of words. These can easily be edited out. Here, the residuum retains its original order and a subtext is exhumed.