"Bibliomorphic" [by Jim Dolot]

Bibliomorphic

Things that are shaped like books but are not books
Abound.  One leaf opens over another.
The folding-chairs are books manqués, no doubt,
Though only when unfolded for the booths,
And only such in this folding, defeated poem,
Which will not be, even by a reader, repeated.
Bebe Rebozo is a name shaped like a book,
Book him, you serifs, before he gets away,
Though who he wasn’t we otherwise don’t remember
(Our synapses are fading now and yellowing like books.)
A box of candies open, a laptop, a sandwich,
All of these are (sort of) like books, at least for now.
The body is bibliomorphic, symmetrical,
Libriform, and lasts about as long as a paperback.
So is the butterfly in this novel and that.
The universe, book-formed, has a central seam
For two great wings, star-marginalia visible
Only to those who have the right strength
Reading-glasses, and the minuscule g
Turned on its side is a bicycle, ant, or book.
Books are Kabbalahform, cubic, Kaabaesque.
They take part in the night-closing of the shops.

-- Jim Dolot

Comments

[mitch s.]

ja, ja -- a good way to remember bebe rebozo (or anything) is first to remember who or what he wasn't. bebe rebozo was not the other nixon friend robert abplanalp, for instance, he was not barney greengrass. ja, ja, denken sie an dass...

[DL]

I love this poem's premise and the working out of its "bibliomorphic" conceit. The ending -- from the moment of the butterfly in the novel -- is gorgeous.

[Joy Katz]

I echo what mitch says above: the ending is perfect.