Light Substance

(Borges quoting Plato, who characterized poetry as
"that light substance, winged and sacred.")

That literary scarecrow, winded and scared

that light-headed smoke, a wayward sedative

that lousy situation, wordless and sad

that limitation of the senses, wonderful and stricken

the lingering sweetness of the wind in silk

that last sunset of weltanschauung and strychnine

a light suggestion and a woman shivers

the loser sues in worn-out shoes

the lung of science wants it sung

the latitude of simile, a written shakedown

that lesson in the cells, a well of sound

a lamenting sonnet, with a weightless status

a ladder to the sudden, a window on your sin

the lens of solitude, a warped scene

the lighthouse on the shore, a whore on the street

a lazy stasis, a waltz in the salt

a line in the sand, your wallet stolen

that linguistic secretion in a watery solution