Itinerary by Adrienne Rich

Itinerary

i.

Burnt by lightning    nevertheless

she’ll walk this terra infinita

lashes singed on her third eye 

searching definite shadows    for an indefinite future

Old shed-boards beaten silvery hang

askew as sheltering 

some delicate indefensible existence  

Long grasses shiver in a vanished doorway’s draft

a place of origins    as yet unclosured and unclaimed

Writing cursive instructions on abounding air

If you arrive with ripe pears, bring a sharpened knife 

Bring cyanide with the honeycomb

             call before you come        

ii.

Let the face of the bay be violet    black the tumbled torn

kelp necklaces strewn alongshore

Stealthily over time arrives the chokehold

stifling ocean’s guttural chorales    

                                                 a tangle

of tattered plastic rags

iii.

In a physical world the great poverty would be

to live insensate    shuttered against the fresh

slash of urine on a wall

low-tidal rumor of a river’s yellowed mouth

a tumor-ridden face asleep on a subway train

What would it mean to not possess 

a permeable skin

explicit veil to wander in

iv.

A cracked shell crumbles.

Sun moon and salt dissect the faint

last grains

An electrical impulse zings  

out    ricochets 

in meta-galactic orbits

a streak of nervous energy rejoins the crucible

where origins and endings meld

There was this honey-laden question mark

this thread extracted from the open

throat of existence—Lick it clean!

—let it evaporate—