Hesitation Step

“It looks like the surface . . . .”
—Mei-Mei
Berssenbrugge
“. . . falling away from the world . . . .”
—Joshua Clover
Hesitation Step:
“. . . the terror and the hungering . . . .”
—June Jordan
“. . . this pair of rings . . . .”
—Marina Tsvetaeva
(tr. Catherine Ciepiela)
“. . . only an hour away . . . .”
—Henry James

Of course now such seems of looseness of un-We
might have left to discover the world
tethering: the heavy blackish shoes worn
When it’s raining we want to reach the ground

To satisfy a need someone could imagine
Earlier having had the happy life
Like that man in the store discounting feelings
You bring yourself toward the smiles of cashiers

Once as we’ve begun to speak of before
We had no idea a cloud could stop
Being battened on the treetops so quickly
It reduced the distance that you can see
Between the different places on a map
Not for our one time but still under it