A BURNING-GLASS


The rules have turned on & sudden lights
startle the figures in this landscape
who should stand for a formal portrait,
or otherwise could become lenses
that focus in something like nature
particular views they legislate,
or otherwise can produce nothing
but make it for a certain value
a moment of unenlightenment:
language doing the things it doesn't.
Then they know that the words in formal
understanding bring to clarity
a point of fire in an opened eye:
nothing or something no-one can tell.