Excerpts from HOLE

Death, said the small woman to the tall man, is a black hole         
consuming each and every star.
The black hole is life, whispered the man who lay in her bed.
He whispered and added nothing. She too said nothing else
when at once the earth together with them
and with the endless skies, opened wide.
 
*
A delegation sent to find the hole,
said the man to the small woman,
found only pretend holes.
They looked like holes, and with your eyes closed and almost asleep
you might peek through them
and see a star and an animal and a person,
you could, he said, even poke them with your finger.
But they aren’t the hole. The hole isn’t in the mouth, or the navel,
or hidden orifices of the body. It isn’t buried
in the mouth of a well and not in gaping cisterns.
Infrequently, the man said, it is revealed in the labyrinth of the ear
when songs are sung.
 
You’re mistaken, said the small woman to the man,
the hole is here and also there.
It’s in the bottle and the stopper, alone and in a group.
It’s in the list each delegate has written in his notebook
and is the delegation itself.
 
[ . . . ]
 
*
And, the small woman wondered, when I remained without my soul,
and even more so, without breath, spirit, the living or the unique one,
how could I still respond when my name was called, and remember my father’s name, my mother’s,
“yes”, I remembered to say and “no”, “please” and “at two-thirty”, “thank you”
someone spoke while I had no soul, no breath, no spirit, neither the living nor the unique one,
when I wasn’t myself
when I had no nearness and awareness?
Even when you have all these, the tall man said,
when you have a soul, and breath, spirit, the living one and the unique one,
your ability to answer is a riddle, and no one knows the solution.

*
And once, when he and she had left these things behind
and so, from the outside, tried to fit the pieces together
like puzzle parts, like bits of a story
like pieces of scenery on a theater stage –
their attempt failed – there was no end, and no beginning,
an extra piece was left over, or an empty space exposed
and a color omitted from the spectrum, blue or pink,
or a body appeared alive although it was dead –
and this way they knew the truth was lived.
 
 
 
 
 

Excerpts from HOLE