Infinit(iv)e

by Juliana Spahr, Lori Lubeski, and Jen Hofer


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SPAH05.01 and RIFT05.01 copyright (c) 1995. See below for full notice.
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Infinit(iv)e


1

one day
the body acquires needles
cantankerous feet
sores and burns and other marks

			heat hangs

		a cloud or mirror above
		what [we] see as real becomes a question

asphalt		
				shatter
		climb			
					compass
                                                        lists of locations

						lost child

 
looking at the body
one forms statements
"the wide world is never enough" one says
"there is an abundance of paranormal activity" a woman calls the newspaper
to exclaim
"roads lead only to hospitals" a man says in his darkening room

[we] cringe upon entering
relatives hate to visit
[we] enter everyday
[we] listen

 2

the body's heat repressive
one climbs across wastelands
contiguous digressions reinstate
preference
	
		      small plastic tubes

		the seeping of fluid from the knee
					
			5 pound buckets of tar

	recyclable waste
			
			             the production of biomedical hazards

asphyxiated by dust
by skin
by just moral habits
an outdate vast convenient plot
some return to this plot to find the answer

others endlessly retire to god
some to satan
 
3

this body is different than the body left behind
or the one left alone

it is a terrorist body sharpened
its limbs		whittles lips into
its forlorn shapes	mistakes are made

governments rephrase the calendar
individuals look for plots

a face blemished to thin
remains an image

sunlight			random filtered stains

 
4
when whose little cloud is found
				whose cloud
washed up on a sand dune
			a pier

					a street corner
						
						a room empty of furniture

the party begins and ends
at dusk
whittle shape returns
disease rounds
random filtered stains return

the bed is unmade
 
5

small pink sandals beach
this is lost
hospital waste
				hair nets
						monitored liquid

the body dehydrates
				inserts itself
becomes religious during a moment
of vast convenience

Swoon
ripen
unbind
plot

 
6

"lost," someone says
the ward is not open
during a finite state
during a period of need
of visiting hours repressed
there under
under lost
under listen



[end]



RIFT05.01 and all extensions and related 05.01 files copyright (c) 1995. All rights revert to author(s) upon publication. Texts distributed by RIF/T, e-poetry@ubvm, or the Electronic Poetry Center (Buffalo) may not be republished in any form without express consent of author(s) and notification of the editors, but may be freely circulated among individuals for personal use provided that this copyright statement is included. Public archiving, sale, or distribution in electronic or print forms without permission of the editors is prohibited. Responses, submissions, and queries to: E-POETRY@UBVM.CC.BUFFALO.EDU