[Kay Syrah]

To the poet


The walls don’t talk
anymore than the mirror
records every face it reflects.
Beyond the words that bleed
from the walls steamed to peel
the paper that I pasted
to make a decorator’s statement
there is a blank that waits
for explanations

If nice guys finish last
then the paper hangers
get the loudest laugh.

[Kay Syrah]

SIMULACRUM (simulacra): Something that replaces reality with its representation. Jean Baudrillard in "The Precession of Simulacra" defines this term as follows: "Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal.... It is no longer a question of imitation, nor duplication, nor even parody. It is a question of substituting the signs of the real for the real" (1-2). His primary examples are psychosomatic illness, Disneyland, and Watergate. Fredric Jameson provides a similar definition: the simulacrum's "peculiar function lies in what Sartre would have called the derealization of the whole surrounding world of everyday reality" .

At her casement, a love song

Sometimes the song becomes
counter-weighted with the secrets
it must hold back, swallows its
own tongue like the lead that keeps

the double hung sash positioned securely
in its track. Pretty panes will always
be cradled in the frame, slide upon invisible
ropes and pulleys, cushioned from the fall.

Laced with the delicate web that traces
shadows upon walls and tiles; the glass
admits the light as if its innocence is sufficient
dispensation. Its fragile clarity adds nothing

to the view, but rings it all with the simulacrum of truth
while unsung weights keep faith, with silence like a lay.