TWO FEET THEN NONE
on mobile? turn phone sideways!
You know that part of every conversation —
the reflecting-on-youth part, the trying-to-swallow-
vainness part, the darling-but-my-intentions(!) part —
it’s the mouth of a river, and down and down
the river curves then stands, stands then walks,
walks then sees, sees then knows. The hardness
of anyone trying to be something is owned,
then given an open part of this world to die in.
———
Artist Note: This is a borrowed words poem, all words being borrowed from Kate Baer’s poem titled “Both Ways.” The “borrowed word” exercise originated from poet Jane Hilberry, and it goes like this: select a poem you’ve never read, copy down all the words, then write a new poem using the words found in the original poem. I view this exercise as a form of asynchronous collaborative writing, as well as an intuitive practice.
