[Camachee]

consider
an ego
self-absorbed
adoring
audience
of mist
understanding
only the fog
of performance
and the
redundant
perfunctory
encore
of hollow
echo
refrain
and disdain
missing the
amusement
of drugged distillation
and inhalation
of the
moment

[Kay Syrah]

Then wear the gold hat, if that will move her; If you can bounce high, bounce for her too, Till she cry "Lover, gold-hatted, high-bouncing lover, I must have you!"
THOMAS PARKE D'INVILLIERS. (Epigraph to The Great Gatsby)

setting sale

hi hats,
and fast foot work

gold bouncing
symbols hopeful
lovers selling
the open notes
and closing the deal
in the beat of sweat
and concentration
trying not to close
the vibrations
of possibilities
but remembering
the price of everything

while accepting
the consequences
of successful
pedaling.

"tomorrow we will run faster, stretch our arms out farther… And one fine morning-
So we beat on, boats against the current, born back ceaselessly into the past.”

history

I guess everything
is bookended
between first
aspirations
and last gasp,
and shuffling
the order of
the volumes
requires that
the set
be complete.