Theorist


Living theory
                 dries blood
                                   on the book shelf.
Dusty analyses
                 soar over the kingdom
                                   making casts
out of wood
                 life, retro-
                                   fitted into tongues
of the formalist.
                 Soon everything
                                   reducible pattern
forest floors stripped
                 of tree stump
                                   look like the speech
that bares us
                 for assimilation.
                                   In the theorist’s room
curtains draw
                 over black
                                   windows, life
blurs
                 with the broken
                                   writing of machines.