An Argument with Wisdom at Montauk

AN ARGUMENT WITH WISDOM AT MONTAUK / Stephen Dunn We've just two days, Zen time: if we don't try to fill them they might be full. But we were born in the east, not in the East. What can we do? There are cliffs to climb. There's an old lighthouse at the Point. And here at the motel the untanned parts of us are neon signs saying Here. It's not reality we're after, it's preferences. We go toward things vagrant as the gulls, elevated and reduced by appetite, always in transit. I touch you. I wish for the days to be measured by touch, to find time for the lighthouse too. If I had a choice, this is how the universe would be understood: bodies in motion. The astronomy of the small lamp by the bed. The Missouri Review · 17 ...