Less without any cause
and effect in yellow you
came up the eastern evening

At that critical moment, she whispered later, the panic
   of absolute doubt breathed on her left breast
While he was touching her right: what if this light reflected

It begins in blindness: taste of invisible ink;
black mouthful of discreet syllables,
punishable. Shrouded in touch, at the shut

Zeuxis painted grapes so real
that birds came down
to peck, but Parrhasius painted

I do not recall who trapped me in that darkness
The world knows as a vessel of light,
By what cruel trick or Asian sorcery

He jettisoned our aspersions with sailing gestures ,
sucking clean the invidious indifference,
spitting unethical sounds that pealed the spirit,

In the moment just before the music scares
the machinery whispers to itself inside
its mild, black box, until, with an indrawn breach,

First, you must collect the unfamiliar
pieces, this dither, toward a central hub.
Do not, though, mistake pretended order

Winter antelopes into erstwhile
   dogmas committed against an ivory
         cane, and three ducats of pilsner

No rain for weeks, cows hold
their milk within covetous udders.

The river lies still as an infant