October 23rd 2021
after RJCB
I
Because the poem can’t decide for us
if winter’s yet begun
because the future marshals us with gestures
learned before we’re born
because everything I’ve said could fit inside
an ampoule of ice of your spit
I
because “we are not in the same place”
because “the subject is unaware of our presence”
because I turned away before the clouds completely occluded
because I’m looking through between two windows to where I’m sat
because it might not happen only
because it already has
I
because the poem decides all this for us
you obviously have my permission to do this.
Note: the lines “we are not in the same place” and “the subject is unaware of our presence” were spoken by, I think, the popular Dutch artist Casper Faassen, a slick and polished Art Fair favourite who nevertheless summed up this idea nicely enough. The poem as a whole is a response to a better poem written by Rowland Bagnall.
reflecting/reflecting 