Fusion by Rae Armantrout

Fusion

  

When we recognize we  “think again”

without knowing what or if

we thought before.

  

I confuse copper

with brass.

  

To recognize is almost

always a pleasure;

perhaps it is pleasure itself.

  

I confuse Melissa

with Melissa.

  

To recognize is not

only to give something a name

but to give it the very name

that was waiting for it

  

somewhere

  

as if thing and name had been

sad without each other.

  

That’s a woman

in an arctic-fox costume

singing,  “Don’t you worry

‘bout a thing,

baby.”

  

I confuse worry with

  

                *

  

Darkness in the shape

of leaves

flows over a building;

  

black ellipses

on the bay

  

slipping

and falling into place