• A poet on the ledge;
    Balanced on a book's edge
    Like blank paper, quivering
    Under a wind or pen.

    Over a gulf of silence
    Vast as the pale moon:
    A chasm cast
    In the shadows of speech
    And given to nervous swallowing.

    Living mouth-to-hand,
    From one tick-tock
    Of old clocks to another;
    Trying to trust more
    In a written word's solidity
    Than in the liquid flowing
    Of timing, tongue, and teeth.

    Like bare skin, quivering
    Under a wind or hand...