Joshua Keiter

Grasping the coin
with clenched fists
pointed at the ground

leaves you unable
to open your hand
and to see the coin

surrounded by all this space.

All day the day has been
raining so hard even the rain

is raining
such that the streets become oceanlike

in their appearance
swaying as it were like a wave

like a giant waterfall
save for the spray

no-one knows where it goes
the creeks are too constraint

to contain it all
so overflow it tides

over the retaining wall
into the haunted streets

awaiting mudslide
and tumult seepage

this rain began deep underground
on the other side of the world

underside the world
where life grows from the core

unlike the sun
stretching over the horizon

even the first person in space
could see the folds in earth

where rivers riven run
disregarding the too bright sun

all of a piece
these tender catastrophes

the magnificent desolation
we are all born into

drenched in rain
flowing undertow

overwhelmed.

The road is composed
of individual pebbles

indistinguishable

unless you place your head
too close to the ground

I had a very interesting—
background let’s put it that way,
and yet I found head resident
at Shippensburg University
the most challenging one I ever had.

Because when I went up there
they did have, they had to be—
and this is for your benefit—
they had to be in at nine during the week
and eleven thirty, twelve o’clock—
this is the girls I’m talking about, of course—
then it wasn’t long—oh and then I went through
the—it was the Vietnam stage of the war
and the guys burnt their cards,
yeah it was a restless time.

And then after that short—
a little while after that in years
there was restlessness growing on campus
in regards to if the guys could have girls and all that
why couldn’t the girls?
So that provoked, of course the civil liberty union was in on that.
And then of course when I first went up there,
the alcohol scenes on campus.
Now this was a long while ago,
and anyhow that was it, the alcohol scenes,
so I was meeting all of these things.

Well I didn’t deal with the girl directly—
I had, as you would know, a senior resident,
and then but we had—and then after a while
we, under the guidance of the psychologist and everything,
which we had a lot of training
we had our own judge and jury in the dormitory—
that would be of interest to you—
and we had I’ll call them penalties for certain things
but at the very beginning the girls were expelled
or suspended for alcohol, use of alcohol
then the girls did get in to the dorm,
I mean the guys did get into the dormitory
but I didn’t stay up all night, you bet I wouldn’t ask
there was a guy sat on desk to open the front door
but you know as many got in that back door as the front door.

It was interesting in the respect that—
there was a break in with a stranger
and I never locked my door,
but I happened to see it was Christmastime,
excuse me near Christmas,
and we decorated our hallway door
and I had mine covered with dark blue
whatever you call that paper
no name on my door then
and this one night I was there
I had only a dim lamp on
and my door opened just this way
and I said who’s there
and the door goes in this way
so I knew something was amiss
and then I thought I can’t stay in here
but if I step out I might get conked on the head!
What do you do?
So I took a deep breath, said a prayer, and I opened the door
and fortunately across the hall was a girl’s door open
now this girl had been sick all day
it was a blessing so it gave me a chance to speak to her
and also turn around and come back and I could see,
but just as quickly as I got in my door
there was another person behind me
and it was a senior assistant and she said to me
Mrs. Hudson there’s a man in the house
I said I know it I saw his—
when I went out I saw his eyes peeking over the door
from the girl’s bathroom—

So my life was full of interesting things
that’s only one of them.

If you remember you tell one
now that you’re bringing back memories
they get all—I got so many! I can’t sort them out.

pay no attention
to the cipher behind the curtain

the curtain which is torn
in two

revealing the extraneous
phenomena within

these aren’t the deities
you are looking for

we threw the book
away and sent

for reinforcements
a couple billion or so

to pay homage
to their own image

sacrificing blood
for more blood

and more blood
endlessly amen

The necessary myth
causes undeniable trembling
at the thought that this
is all that there is
nothing more than a little
rhythmical grumbling at
the cause of chemical synthesis
which has not been discovered yet yet
lies shifting at the center
before the center had been lost
of every single living thing
in these last days
waiting to be found
in the last place we look

Old towns reverberate
with lack of industry

there used to be a giant
swimming pool here

but it was demolished
due to disuse and disinterest

everywhere you go
there’s another carousel

with no one riding it
but ghosts of yesteryear

unemployed along with
the abandoned buses

by the railroad tracks
they’re settled in there now

no way anyone’s gonna
move them or take them away

Years are marked
by chord changes

traced by blur
phosphorescence

indivisible voice
blended to loop

from beginning
no end only echo

to improvise into
separate tones

distilled to memory—
I’d go easy on myself

if I were you
I didn’t hear I thought

I heard this song before

In order to know that you are saved
you must be told you are damned to begin with

In order to be told you are damned
you must listen to the ones who are doing the telling

In order to listen to what you are told
you must shut off your critical faculties

In order to shut off your critical functions
you must learn to develop them in the first place

In order to develop your critical thinking
you must have something worth criticizing

In order to discover things to be critical of
you must discern the divisions inherent in nature

In order to see things that are different
you must know they are one and the same after all

In order to count to zero
you must create the concept of zero for yourself

In order to dissolve into nothingness
you must have had a concrete self that was convincing

In order to have a concrete self
you must learn to avoid the reflection of mirrors

In order to refract the light
you must allow the source of light to come in

In order to open the window
you must have entered the door at the start

In order to unscrew the doors themselves from their jambs
you must contradict multitudes

In order to lean and loaf at your leisure
you must have done some work that was worthwhile

In order to go on the dole
you must be recognized by the state

In order to be society’s dumb puppet
you must have been a very good baby

In order to be beautiful
you must abandon the beauty in yourself

In order to be magnanimous
you must be prepared to give the world big bear hugs

In order see the world as it is
you must know you are already in the world

In order to be here now already
you must wake up yesterday

In order to fall asleep
you must allow one day to precede the other

In order to let time progress
you must abandon all hope ye who enter here

In order to navigate the vastness
you must look up at the night sky

In order to avoid light pollution
you must stay away from fences and streets

In order to weave in and out of traffic
you must have faith in hither and thither

In order to stay in one place at one time
you must scatter your self freely to whomever come who may

In order to take communion
you must open your mouth

In order to breathe the breath that everyone breathes
you must know there is nothing new under the sun

In order to build a house on solid shifting sand
you must save up a great deal

In order to shore up your treasures in heaven
you must no heaven

In order to follow the river without end
you must find your way to the sea

In order to find your buoyancy
you must sink to the bottom of whatever

In order to be rescued from the well
you must realize you are not alone

In order to face the blood within
you must recognize your skin is translucent

In order to accept your temporary
you must be uncreated

In order to find the first cause
you must return to zero

In order to hear the emptiness
you must know when enough is enough