CAROUSEL
I should have studied metallurgy
in the carceral attention economy.
No one has the other currency:
the price is wrong, until paid.
I want to be indissociable, like a
corporation with limited liability,
but also like trinitarian theology;
the mysterious third person was,
I feel, not adequately explained.
Disambiguation is overrated,
and I’m done asking whether
what I’ve done to myself
and what others have done
to me is the same question.
Abstraction, representation,
wanted dead or resurrected:
surely you’ve seen posters
around town, cher lecteur.
I look into the open mouth
of the carousel’s lacquered
horse, hypnotically sway.
What is the secret word,
or is it a command—
Arise, Lazarus, ándale?
If death is the material,
I can’t grasp the material.
To looped circus music,
an orchestrated concerto,
I spur my horse anyway.
(Virginia Konchan)
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Hi Robin! Thank you for this Substack. I think it’s better than Poem-a-Day by poets.org 😅 can you tell me which book this is from?? Thanks!!!