1.
please think
about a murmuration of starlings
good and now
scan the symbols
perform the relevant computations
share the coordinates
2.
To check if it were febrile, I touched the back of a hand
to it.
I felt velvetโcrushed and expectant.
I felt a crease.
3.
4.
In 2008, a man visits the Shrine of Fatima Masumehย in Qom. His name is [redacted].ย
He has black hair, tufting back from a widowโs peak.
He is [redacted] years old but looks years younger.
At first, he fixes his gaze strictly in front of his body. Like a sharpshooter. Like a carpenter square.
Then, by increments…
5.ย
please thinkย
about a murmuration of starโ
6.
To check if it were real, I touched the tip of an eyelashโ
7.
The longest chain not only serves as proof of the sequence of events witnessedโ
8.
I felt a pulse.
9.
The only way to confirm the absence of [redacted] is to be aware of all [redacted].
10.
By increments, he looks up.
Like night-blooming cereus…
11.
12.
Our definition of nonce forms may be considered by some too loose, by others too restrictive, and maybe that’s for the better. So here goes: a nonce form is generally created by a poet for a specific poem but may, over time, and with repeated usage by subsequent poets, become a “received form.” We cast a broad net, from the more traditional sense of stichic and/or stanzaic patterns generated/”invented” for a specific poem, to a more liberal definition wherein we most verge towards “organic form” (as in Levertov’s “form is the revelation of content” or Creeley’s “form is never more than the extension of content”).
13.
A maw studded with eyeteeth
the color of which
suggests St. Elmoโs fire.
14.
the sequence of events witnessedโ
15.
I felt it pulse.
16.
โI saw my life branching outย
before me like the
green fig tree in the story.โ
17.
If he doesn’t make a lucky lunge forward early on, his chances become vanishingly small as he falls further behind.
18.
please think
about a murmurโ
19.
The network is robust in its unstructured simplicity.
20.
The man stands transfixed by the vault of the shrine.
Each cornice shudders through his body with a multifoliate, machinic violence.
Others, detecting his invalidity, learn to move around him.
Minutes pass.
Hours.
A murmuration of time.
Finally, he unmakes the arc of his back.
He [redacted] goes home.
21.
He never goes home.
โโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโโ
References
Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf.
Plath, S. (2000). The Bell Jar. Harper Perennial Modern Classics. (First published 1963).
Unsplendid. (n.d.). Nonce Forms. http://www.unsplendid.com/noncedef.htm.
Stephanie Yue Duhem is writing out of Austin, TX. She can be found online @nameandnoun or at www.sydpoetry.com.
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