KAVEH AKBAR
Happy Birthday to Each of Your Limbs
If a man lived forever he would outlive
Hope.
- Oppen
Everything claims to be essential until
proven otherwise—suck the hue
from an iris and it'll watch you
the whole time. How many years did you
misplace? And still somehow here you are, alive
as a garden pest. Tweak your laugh. Tweak
your sex. Grow your fingernails into long
fishhooks. You can make an entire habitat
of was. At least then you'll have
your party hat. At least then you'll have
your balcony heap of body parts. We know fear
mimics desire the way satin bowerbirds
mimic love, desperately presenting
their mates with twiggy rings. It seems almost
too strange a symmetry, like a baby
drawing a row of perfect circles
across a wall. Remember, there but for
the crippling fear of God go thee. Here's
how to earn your veil: wake up,
soap your toes, withstand the day long enough
to warrant sleep. There is no lesson
in this, no triumphant hymn at the end--
only the great gurgling lake of gasoline
and row after row of No Smoking signs.
209 The Paris-American
If a man lived forever he would outlive
Hope.
- Oppen
Everything claims to be essential until
proven otherwise—suck the hue
from an iris and it'll watch you
the whole time. How many years did you
misplace? And still somehow here you are, alive
as a garden pest. Tweak your laugh. Tweak
your sex. Grow your fingernails into long
fishhooks. You can make an entire habitat
of was. At least then you'll have
your party hat. At least then you'll have
your balcony heap of body parts. We know fear
mimics desire the way satin bowerbirds
mimic love, desperately presenting
their mates with twiggy rings. It seems almost
too strange a symmetry, like a baby
drawing a row of perfect circles
across a wall. Remember, there but for
the crippling fear of God go thee. Here's
how to earn your veil: wake up,
soap your toes, withstand the day long enough
to warrant sleep. There is no lesson
in this, no triumphant hymn at the end--
only the great gurgling lake of gasoline
and row after row of No Smoking signs.
209 The Paris-American
