I get everything in footnotes – Second-hand, used up Meaning depleted To a dull projectile weight Damaging in impact And sinister disreputation That disguises elaborate architectures In an image of itself, the ivy swallows Shivering, in dark green exultation The way a word evaporates Spoken too often and too fast In that aphasic staccato Of unceasing railway cars Crossing points and telegraph lines In bird-like chitter-chatter A name murmured on the phone In hard magnified breaths Nevertheless misunderstood Irreducible as time-worn stones With all the bold effacement Of that immovable wisdom
