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| Dervish 60 x 60 cm - acrylic on canvas |
THE BURNING
Citizens of numerous
online domains…I watch you
swipe over Instagram like it’s
…well…you know…nothing.
You look up from your phone, notice an old man
emerging from a deep vibe, retro-enigmatic, moving
stealthily in your direction. Pretend stealth.
He wants you to be alarmed.
Looks like the type who would burn his papers
against a broken wall in some fragrant, bone dry,
southern land. Pornographic prose poems, diaries, letters
vicious with gossip. Released from paper, from so many significances,
you don’t burn anything these days. Delete mails.
Unfriend strangers on Facebook. That’s the end of it.
And no can one report
mad scribblings on the back of
ripped open envelopes anymore.
James Schuyler wrote that Auden burned his papers
like a diplomat burning secret documents
while the embassy’s under siege. Now, admit it,
you have to believe you’re pretty important to do that.
