A PERFECT CIRCLE

by Jerome Rothenberg

THREE POEMS FROM “A FURTHER WITNESS”
          for Anselm Hollo in memoriam

A PERFECT CIRCLE

the protocol
of light
runs through
the dreamer’s
thoughts

I seize it
unmindful
call it
my own
a flash

redundant
burning
kings
of chaos
rising up

from front
to back
the colors
make
a perfect circle

particles
in flight
the forest
with its thousand
birds

no prototype
more real
an actuality
of hidden
life

a fantasy
of animals
like narcoleptic
mice                                    (for John Solt)
& spiders

see
the sidewalk
rise
& strike you
dead

the way
the road
to paradise
recoils
& binds us *                        * blinds us