Floats

by Alice Notley

  all the parts of the body float
like petals some stricken
all the parts of you are outlasted

each replica I am preach- replica
   sits ing no other     quiet
        replica owns you or         replicates
      replica       the land you stand on while replica
        your time or mind. Re-     speaks
replica doesn’t       plica keeps giving self to
   wear same           replica pretending is this in
   gar- there is a story   beauty
   ment           about necessarily and its
replication     can a beauty be
a beauty     down through the         cont-
a beauty ages …           inually replic-
ated

I the non-replica
get bored with say-
          ing replica repetitions. right.
      I am becoming the light a light felt in
  my deteriorating replica of a knee (word)

I fel the two lights
        of my bad knees   as I
      stand and preach to      are you replicas
or are you souls
What is a soul?
O replica it is not but you that you may not
        have seen as the other you
of now       “Nothing you’ve
ever wanted”
          is your soul
          Nothing you’ve
tried to find
    or even been trained to
    find by not finding —                      you will pass
             into an almost other
        it will seem “off”.
                                        in the dark lit by the
  hidden moon you
look around      trying to remem-
                                    ber      then, you settle
        and are infused —
      by yourself
                                I am holding you
                      you are not a replica.