Inscription for the Future, and: The City of Your Mind, Having Been Sacked, and: He Asked

Inscription for the Future

to James Baldwin

You penciled across the title page gapLet's not give up on it.

                jimmyNo other, no coconspirator in your plan.So dear you needn't name them. A nobodyKnows their name. One signed in a row of stacks.Your sister. You knew this copy, longAfter you were gone, would wind up with me.Didn't know my name. Still, our little pact.The fire has come. Difficult to say whenIt will burn out. You hoped we could rebuild,That there would be survivors, the chosen.You've torched me, many, tempered us someFrom the smoldering. You will anointThe unborn, your thumbprint on their chests.Tell me a story of the ocean, tell meAbout Jonah or the calanques, waterThat marries the light. Be the whale harboringMe, the inlet of a lazy noonWhere I repent, dive, refresh, float on it—American Experiment, rapture,Tomorrow morning, a tidal shift, windSwitching, the mind outgrowing weariness,Return of the hot horn, something of love,Words & words, the universe unwarpingTimespace, memory, late spring, late autumn, Our eye systems, belief & disbelief,Forgetting without forgetting, what mayYet be & has been otherwise already,Complete with touching, dismembering, &Rearranging with a touch of the new.

The City of Your Mind, Having Been Sacked

to James Baldwin

A sledgehammer to the temple riftsAlong the brow, nose ridge, far edge of your lips.Half your face slips, sifts to earth.The minaret has fallen, the souk blasted,The split arch leans into itself, legsOf a father unburying his homeEndlessly. In me remains the same city,The ruins of the city in you. The library blazed,Scrolls & hard drives. The temple ransacked.Shroud & song torn down. Splashed out the stained windows,Prayer the roof unimplodes, walls pulled down,Heaved to hovel. The siege has passedUntil the next wave. We'll rebuild the minaret.We can set, each of us, a cornerstone—Wherever you are, there, & here. They will beThe same stone, hewn centuries ago,Tumbled & cracked at the same edge. Our rubbleWill rise. Spiral with me toward morningStars, call across time & our split livesFor alignment. Together, we break physics.

He Asked

He didn't know what to say exactlySo he just kept saying "Ey! Ey! … Ey!—Ey!"He wanted to tell somebody his storyOr he wanted to present enough reasonsOr strong enough reasons before he askedSomebody "Could you get me something to eat?"His eyes were soft, like the word hazel,& because his eyelids kept warm the topsOf his irises, & because he watchedThe face of somebody as if he wereActually a bonfire kept quietBy a man's body. He wanted a steak.He didn't know what to say exactlyWhen the first menu didn't have any.He hummed, stumped, hummed, stuttered his humming, &Stumbled out a question: "Is it all rightWe go to Chipolte?" Somebody askedWhen it comes to language, what is lovelyIn what we're taught to call mistakes? He askedHis question lovelily. He asked & asked &Asked, trembling, if he could have extraMeat, for more beans, please. That day he neededExtra protein. The day after,Chicago would see the negative teens.Somebody crossed the street, got in a car.His fire burst through his eyes, quietly,As he murmured sounds of yeah & thh & ooo,As he shuffled to find a seat, fill hisLarge drink with joy, indoors, again & again.