Four Poems by Kazim Ali
"Lostness"
dear God of blankness I pray to dear unerasable
how could I live without You if I were ever given answers
the summer thickens with lostness
lovers who will not touch each other but look out into space
thinking I do not belong in the world
news always travels inland but how can this storm
be undone or the treacherous rain unravel or the train
arriving one street over and all night long
on an island at the end of islands a foresworn vow
a river blasted through and another river filled in
dear afternoon God dear evening God my lonely world
the circles of water and wanton violence
dear utterly unmistakable ether
dear Lostness your careless supplicant drops everything
and rakes over me on his way to an implacable place
"Sleep Door"
a light knocking on the sleep door
like the sound of a rope striking the side of a boat
heard underwater
boats pulling up alongside each other
beneath the surface we rub up against each other
will we capsize in
the surge and silence
of waking from sleep
you are a lost canoe, navigating by me
I am the star map tonight
all the failed echoes
don’t matter
the painted over murals
don’t matter
you can find your way to me
by the faint star-lamp
we are a fleet now
our prows zeroing in
praying in the wind
to spin like haywire compasses
toward whichever direction
will have us
"Pip"
for DBQHe slips between the pages
into depth
Is this what was written
on the body’s blank
Who you’re praying to
is perhaps
A castaway: lost in publication,
unfinished
The boats mount their
horizonward search
I do not want to drown or
be lost
In blue smoke, a sound of
oars working
My name being
called
"August"
A jigsaw of nothing but sky
Three pieces next to one another
A clamor, a lull, an official complaint
No map provides for sore spots or depths
Not an ounce of white in sight
You’re unlocatable
Three different versions of downpour
A trembling instrument
When the wait was empty
Music came out of the woods
Not what you expected
An empty place and no piece to match
How could you turn into blue
What in the world were you doing
When the picture was shown
You receive no image or instruction
What you seek to fit into will not cease