PATTIE McCARTHY

the Insomniac's Ethics, from and to

You will wish you did this differently.

if il coeur is the choragus, if icarus
                              knew something
about solar
                   aeronautics
                   consideration against
the sky, chiffon.  The boy
                                              suspended, squirms the split
between ground  and the muscular rush,
                                                              wiry strain
(what does that sound like?)

what wings we
resort to-

our meniscus literary
                                   urgent chanson
                In the crescent we forget

the skyline found in
lucidity.  If icarus knew
something, it was            deliberate.

The choragus  elucidated over our heads.

fire clings to fire-- even unlike things.

                                  [if echo is always
                                  looking over
                                  her shoulder, write
                                  from Paris or Mykonos, write
                                  from sleepless spots and-
                                  Looking over her shoulder.
                                  "You are useless alone."]

Arabesque less
                interesting than its arco
techniques.
Play each others-- ariosos.
        we are cellos.

What music- an invitation.

Perihelion
pendant
                              flirtation.
We pick, pluck each other-- a lyre
tenebrous.  Tendons strung, strings earned,
taut.   And the boy, his wings
                        deliberate
in sky's orisons.
	                                                Myths of self-absorption--
	                                                the high lore's in the mail.
"If two of you play,
one has got to win."

If il coeur        the boy        voices
               is this a chorus      antiphonic
or our second winter with bad breaks?

If echo, vehicle for sound--
(this is both from and to)
the insomniac's        badge of honor,

                do you recognize yourself [X] here?

add the following
to the list of things
never to be said again: