POEMS
Earldom and
Earldom
I am sitting in a car
next to a small park
sandwiched between
Earldom
and
Earldom
Two streets of the
Same
Name
We live in an age
of digital surveillance
but this place
defies those
peeping
shackles
If you look it up online
one of the streets
does not appear_
Right at this moment
the sunlight
is just about
to
Kiss
the lower lip
of the bench
in the middle
of the triangular
park.
In five minutes
the light will
be gone
that empty
bench
like so much
of so many of our lives_
I am reminded of a chapter
in Roland Barthes’
Empire of Signs
the chapter where
he discusses the lack of
street addresses in Tokyo
finding a place
is pure contingency, he says
you must orient yourself
through experience
reclamation can only
be achieved
through the memory
it has imprinted on you
like a Kiss
between Earldom
and Earldom
next to a small park
sandwiched between
Earldom
and
Earldom
Two streets of the
Same
Name
We live in an age
of digital surveillance
but this place
defies those
peeping
shackles
If you look it up online
one of the streets
does not appear_
Right at this moment
the sunlight
is just about
to
Kiss
the lower lip
of the bench
in the middle
of the triangular
park.
In five minutes
the light will
be gone
that empty
bench
like so much
of so many of our lives_
I am reminded of a chapter
in Roland Barthes’
Empire of Signs
the chapter where
he discusses the lack of
street addresses in Tokyo
finding a place
is pure contingency, he says
you must orient yourself
through experience
reclamation can only
be achieved
through the memory
it has imprinted on you
like a Kiss
between Earldom
and Earldom