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Siren at Night
Why is it a siren at night sounds like someone crying for help or else despairing of help? Why is it the city at…
Everything all at once takes a pause
then resumes again
We can’t see or feel it most times
a crack the size of the cosmos
sealed up in an illusion of continuous flow
a pause between one breath and the next
that includes every star no matter
how far away and every sun long
beyond eye- ear- or any-shot
a gulp that isn’t quite a
gulp or a blink that doesn’t mean a
moment exactly of darkness
so infinitesimal a break no worm
or wombat feels anything at all
But what could heave itself
between one living existence and the next is so
monumentally gigantic so beyond any
conception of infinitude
And there and on both and all sides
is Allah and there He on all sides also isn’t
O sweet Mercy O sweet rain of
elements sweet God of it all
That we exist at all O God
in this rush!
3/14/08 (from The Fire Eater’s Lunchbreak)
Categories: Poems