The world that welcomed the divorce
Of word and thing is now outmoded.
The two are one again. The world
Of their new marriage has exploded.
And in the aftermath we watch
As brilliant particles of truth,
Like stars that tell us where we are,
Bring our gaze back down to earth.
Words and their meanings now adhere
To eyelash, fingernail, and throat,
And travel through the dark canals
Inside us. All that was remote
And held at arm’s length from its name
Has found a place upon the tongue.
The words, though new to us, are old
Words to an even older song.
How did it go? In every name
The letters bring a soul to life.
In every soul a world is coiled
Around a staff of joy and grief.
And every grief renews the bond
Between the body and the soul.
And every joy thrills with the fear
Of shattering what had been whole.
