. . . for several years my Lexicon was my only companion
—Emily Dickinson
cry out your shibboleth
into your homeland strangeness
—Paul Celan
Word-ridden, have
you been that way:
-riddled,
I mean, morphemes
begging to be multibegotten
at once, and, for once, always
alphabet-encysted:
are you like me like that, relieved
from sense, shot
through with it, shot through it, into it…
Bruce Beasley is the author of eight collections of poems, most recently Theophobia (2012) and All Soul Parts Returned (2017), both published by BOA Editions.