Dennis Hinrichsen
Dementia Lyric with Issa and a Falling Bird
this is closure opening then closing
again the poem
insists come join me we are
tenants still
continue earth is first body
this then its dying
neurodegenerative and sublime
he follows how his sleeves
hang dead
weight of voids
and forgetting this is closure you
must love it as it adores
you as Beijing air adores
you as birds falling out of
the sky
this is the bodyNewDelhi
the trash heap purr of it
extinction
whispers in each difficult breath
a drowning of
sound (he cannot speak) in sound
he breathes in dark
shimmers he snorkels the luminosity
fawn death in roadside foliage
I idle
the care unit’s morphine
haze a crafted influenza
pinging each upbeat
phrase with sediment
and shine lingos of duration
my cerebellum poised
top of my spine with its sweet
still functioning ounces
I can turn pages I can voice
haiku by Issa
toward each one of his still living eyes
now dignities of
nostril and mouth I dab
at dew drops
of spittle hanging snot
pick half-crushed rice
from bottom lip bare wall
behind us effervescent
with waiting it will absorb him
with eye-blink fusions
he will turn to it it will
take him in spangled
as an aspen this is
closure repetitive curing
carsound prepare for it
song voice lagooned in a box
in a room the frictions
breathing swallowing speaking
suppressed to tremors overlaying
each other face down in starvation silence
Aquifer Manifesto
with John Taggart
