Script (A Paleography for the Future)

--after Michal Rovner**

we are written
we are writhing
living letters
in liquid text

we are bowing
we are rowing
over water
ant-black silent

film / still & yet
fulfill some script
each our bodies
synching syntax

each pull threatens
what has thread us
into this crowd
is there meaning

in the moaning
we can quite hear
ought we quiet
breathing labor

ought we coax her
is it death pangs
is it birth throes
she is rowing

over darkness
she is writing
living letters
in a liquid next

WHEN THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD REVEAL THEMSELVES TO BE FLOTATION DEVICES

vividriver unboundsound watergathered roweddown
birdherd loudoudcloud branchward boughbowed
fieldsunveiled cicadastatic sunsetsailed cricketracket
hideinside verserehearsed emberedbed glimmerimmersed
slinksilk featherbreath tranquilquilt featherbreath
slowstroke swimskin breathsmoke swimskin
huglitter heartheat huglitter hairheat
lashedeyes fleshleaf sighrise heatwreath
rafterlaughter rafterlaughter riverspool laughterafter
spoonspoon leapsleep dreamscene vividriver

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Philip Metres has authored nine books of poetry and prose, including Sand Opera (2015). A recipient of the Lannan Fellowship and two Arab American Book Awards, he is professor of English and director of the Peace, Justice, and Human Rights program at John Carroll University