So the character, though grotesque, retains the ability to arouse
Pathos and humor and sometimes the sublime
Sensation of vertigo, good sleepwalker that he is, heading
Like the fool in the tarot, straight to the edge,
With his dog behind him, his white teeth sunk
In
his master's trousers. Whether the accompanying growls are meant
To urge him over or warn him of impending doom,
We cannot say for certain. A case could be made both ways.
Nor can we predict, nor tell if we could,
The outcome of the drama, whether,
And to what end, an unidentifiable force
Will guide him across the feary chasm where
The earth once shuddered open . We must leave him there
Not knowing, in the prison of his eternal moment, looking
Relaxed in the body that has begun to fit him, climbing
Little steps of air, in the damp, unwholesome night.
Daniel Halpern
THE CONTENTS
Jor Laurie
Remember those subjects, thrown
to the wind
and by the wind thrown back
so that in the night
when you wake
the wind has passed through
and all that's left palpable
in the dark are those subjects,
now thrilled with the arc
they went out on,
a fly released
over a stream on a line
nearly invisible.
Your subjects are returning,
