"Where Abstract Starts" [by Joseph Ceravolo]

Where Abstract Starts

I sit here it is 4:00
Should I say it?
Death occurred to me
And the fit over bounded
My physical thought
As I lie here
It must be my underlying thought

Know now where it comes from
Know now where abstract starts
I sit here, I lie here
It is 4:15

And I should say it
Out in the open, under the stars
Rebounding in my physical body
My non-existing into
The snows of abstract flesh

-- Joseph Ceravolo

The poem appeared in the February 18, 2008, issue of The Nation.

See The Oxford Book of American Poetry for other poems by this extraordinary talent.