black dots
on gray water, a series

of circles that widen & go,
striders that leap & skitter among

each other but not under water marbling
like infinite mirror-rock & on this false solidity they skate

& gather darken a leaf-float without sinking it & the weirdness
is in asking whowhat other than this brain notes the brain

noting these thoughts & how can I follow one & let
that be enough & would I feel at ease if not thoughts but

my being pocked the lakeface or if could see by
heartouch like a bat in space myself becoming

after all circles that widen
& dissolve—­

 

 

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K.A. Hays is author of Anthropocene Lullaby (Carnegie Mellon) and Before Wisdom: The Early Poems of Paul Verlaine (World Poetry), co-translated with Keith Waldrop. Hays facilitates poetry workshops at Bucknell and in prisons as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange program.

 

 

 

Photo by Pavan Prasad on Unsplash