MICHEL DEGUYThe man and the woman exchange their faces
The wine is slow on the painting
To pass through its hourglass
And the artist quick to the heart through symbols
Gifted with confidence hesitates:
Is the stone more beautiful in the wall?
—clayton eshleman
Who What
For a long time you have not existed
Face occasionally celebrated and su≈cient
How I love you I don’t know For a long time
I’ve been loving you indi√erently I love you to hate
Through an omission through a murmur through cowardice
Obstinately Against all likelihood
I love you in losing you in order to lose
This me who refuses to be one of us carried away
From the stern (this jig-sawed balcony over the salt)
Ex-who dragged by the back between surface and depth
Now what
Punished mouth
Punished mouth heart surveying the orbit
A question for all wearing the third thing in vain
—clayton eshleman
The Wall...
The wall is massive, of solid stone, hard, finished; yet it oozes The wall is
smooth, new and old, durable, and yet it is cracked, and through the fault welling
and sliding a drop, a beast, a moss The wall performs its role, it borders, it blocks,
it separates, it conceals, it obstructs, and yet must it do it, it protects, it upholds
the insect 100%, it laments, it o√ers the decision backing, it is reckoned to the
bone, it pierces the waters, it has just allowed the inscribing hand to pass
through, it makes one mortal in one’s mind
Here fell
Here lived
Here died
Here passed
—clayton eshleman