“On the Absence of Context”
what do you think about the experiment long ago
a literary one that is
not using vials and flasks and sulphurous fumes
done by a teacher in colonial Ceylon
teaching or trying to teach his
colonial charges
the upper crust of the overseen population
how to read poetry
important poetry that is
poetry in the imperial words
how to read those things
correctly
so he distributed to them
the poem about the Emperor
and ice cream
and asked them to write their thoughts
it is about
they said
an immensely powerful
place
an abode of frozenness
where all bow down
in humbleness
and awe
before the Mandate of Heaven
when I first
awoke
the sunlight was inside of me
not from the window
desire
was a book
opened on the shelf
wrinkles on my toes
were
those of the caiman
its shy teeth
glistening
in the sunlight
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