Fugue
Patrick Haas
after ws merwin
i.
hunger from the woods, that great
god, hunger
I mean, not the woods, I had
nothing you could take
and so
you stayed
waiting, hanging empty
bottles inside of me where you
begin in me each face
in the street is a slice of bread even
in the middle of the night
hunger flying deeper
into my black lungs, most
of my tongues, slipped shadows
of leaves, you never once afraid
of where you were going
start with snow from the beginning
start with a question for my two eyes
my ears, my mouth, my heart, flying
through the half-light of
try to imagine the world before you
try to imagine you carrying me into that world
ii.
steps and a calendar to carry
you I remember
being a pile of leaves
spreading
like a wave in the wind
toward the color
of apples, pace
of a child's mind
gliding through hills
of child sleep,
puzzle of mother and father
the old ambitions
the persuaders
the blind neighbors
why should I return?
damp odor of heart, raucous
intruder wrapped
in black ribbons
passing through vacant rooms
why should I return?
iii.
the rust colored leaves
fall, books
of grief the wind flips
through
bore in
hello bore
in good-bye
but I am in this world
mixing bewilderment with
ignorance
waiting for myself
in another life centuries
from now
waiting
behind a white veil of snow
having erased the beginning
iv.
he is climbing
through the windows
of error, he
is stripping his old
garments
and tossing them
like shadows
across the sky
there is a singing
somewhere
he is sure of it
he is sure of it
a somewhere
there is singing
v.
brightness belonged
to the other monument.
the names we stole stole
us in return. unlike any
thing to say remember
the forest opened some
good thing to you. but
you now does not exist.
is of no use. the feeling
is of never wanting to
return, to have anything
put in your place. such
delight. finding nothing
the mind gets up and runs.
Patrick Haas has published other poems in Unstuck, The Prose Poem Project, and Dark Sky, as well as other journals. Some of the language in "Fugue" was borrowed from W.S. Merwin's poems "Bread", "Habits", "Second Psalm: The Signals", "The Blessing", and "Finding A Teacher".
