Imagine We Live in a
House of Paper
 
whose eaves are bound in the library of dark,
foxed by the wind’s thumbs,
hammered by rain’s brute type,
picking holes in watermarked shingles.
 
See that calligraphy of inundation,
spidering the parchment chimney breast?
It soddens deeds and affidavits, the fat tomes
where we press our little pieces of past
 
to desiccate between foolscap.
So, then, imagine also sliding
into the close envelope of bed, your body
a pale note on the theme of limbs
 
and eyes, jotted in magic ink.
But you will not be held—
in truth, you long for a spasm
of voltage, a rush of digits, hissing hot
 
in wires that filigree like trails of ember
beneath the skin of the world.
Lightning fires every screen
in your paperless future.

David Clarke 


If you have any comments on this poem, David Clarke would be pleased to hear them.