A black silk stocking a mile long and full of holes.
It has the look, it has the feel
of the most expensive fabric.
See how it works, its lens distills all color
into light,
its patterns clear as salt, its frequencies wash
against our shore like waves
of rings on dark fields.
Inside our hearts there are other hearts,
strings of motion sewn into cinematography,
threads of voices pressed
onto blue rectangles.
It's the medicine dropper's quivering eye,
it's the sensation of lubricants passing between us
and over us and through us
like battalions of roses.
Our hearts pass by one another on pulleys,
You can see them on silver conveyor belts
drawing near their destinations.
Mike Finley is author most recently of ZOMBIE GIRL <http://mfinley.com/daniele>, a downloadable graphic novella
about his daughter Daniele Finley. Proceeds go to anti-suicide work in the Twin Cities, where he lives. Mike has written
over fifty collections of poems and stories.
| I wrote "Look
What the Sun Has Lit Up" a while ago. I had been writing a lot of bleak
surrealistic things and I wanted to change, to let some light in. So I concocted a series of images -- the universe as a stocking, and then an anatomy that was tied into consciousness (picture-taking) and multiplicity (other hearts inside our own). In short, I wanted to apply surrealism to something like ecstasy or bliss. I wanted to do it for my own sake, but have it be a psychological gift to the reader too. Much poetry is either sad or private or just impenetrable. My hope is that this picture is full of flashing, encouraging light -- a nudge to the chops, a "Hey!" |
