Planisphere New Poems Author:John Ashbery Breathlike Just as the day could use another hour, — I need another idea. Not a concept — or a slogan. Something more like a rut — made thousands of years ago by one of the first — wheels as it rolled along. It never came back — to see what it had done, and the rut — just stayed there, not thinking of itself — or calling attention to itself in any way.... more »
Sun baked it. Water stood, or rather sat
in it. Wind covered it with dust, then blew it
away. Always it was available to itself
when it wished to be, which wasn't often. Then there was a cup and ball theory
I told you about. A lot of people had left the coast.
Squirt conditions obtained. I forgot I overwhelmed you
once upon a time, between everybody's sound sleep
and waking afterward, trying to piece together
what had happened. The rut glimmered
through centuries of snow and after.
I suppose it was trying to make some point
but we never found out about that,
having come to know each other years later
when our interest in zoning had revived again.« less