print previewback EDWARD MAYES
On Lines from Czesław Miłosz’s “Meaning”
And if there is no lining to the world
—God, you said, enough, you said
Enough, you said, and all the branches
Tonight, look black, so, per forza, you
Sit down or having sat down to read
Anacreon again, as well as spilling wine on—The tablature, mistakes were made, or delayed, like
Iambics littering a dozen accents, and you
Saturnine, unripe peach, hearing outside
F-bombs mugging for the cameras, and they who
Abide, fail, go looking for handcuffs in—Caesarean sections of the dollar stores, but you will close
Tacitus’s Annals, finding the day-by-day a better bet, one you can’t
Ignore for long, diritto all’oblio, well-noted,
Obelisks ruining themselves in the knot gardens, and there’s
Nothing really left to say about happiness and its end.
per forza: Italian phrase for “by force”
diritto all’oblio: Italian phrase for “right to oblivion”