from "Toner"

51 Ron Silliman from "Toner" Reading's not a spectator sport, overflow fans funneled to upper deck wear caps to protect from glare at the margin— adjectives on the bullpen bench stretch out I want the verb to dip just as it enters sense. Visible metaphor wins one for the Gipper: "America taken hostage" by mass noun News, Ken and Barbie weeknights at eleven. The weak knight's in heaven followed by Panza. Robin fat on the wooden deck. The wounded dick (named for a poet) is saved by his partner, Hawk, big black Other fucker. I stalk 52 the minnesota review in high corn the point of punctuation. Light thru the trees anticipates dusk: Now one rests where previously one resisted. Hot day cotton skirts rise up to the wind's gusts. Sun refracts on window's dust: the archer's back pulled taut as the bow bends aimed at the padded target. Book open, one stares into space. Imagine sweat (imagines sweat) distinct from the participation: football caught high up in the pine past where cones and rocks might dislodge it. Alabaster Lion atop old AM radio (upon yellow oak desk, oil drained from the wok) alongside a string of bibles, lace curtain filters window light. 53 Imagine debt (imagines debt) far less than the participation: foot caught in a bear trap gnawed free at the ankle, critter hops into the dry brush. Sense of a nightmare not knowing why, dry mouth, palpitating chest. Pennants over theme park snap in the wind. So still at dawn you can hear filaments in the streetlamps hum with electricity, birds sing to anticipate the sun. In the station the newsie Has her radio on. Chorizo odors rise up from alongside unsalted eggs on the white plate chipped in the luminous cafe. 54 the minnesota review Glowworm train emerges from tunnel into night: where stars aren't, clouds must be. What the Aussies call a carpark six storeys high lit from within. Overhead flourescents illuminate loading dock at the P.O. Thick blue socks over stockings, high top tennies with their laces untied, she rides with her eyes shut. ...