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 DBQ

He 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