A Missal Like a Bone

Link by link
I can disown
no link.(R. Duncan)
I search the passage
someone sends
& find a missal
like a bone.
My hands are white with sweat.
I lay my burden down
the ground below me
shrinking.
The more my fingers ply
these keys the more
words daunt me.
I am what a haunt
averts, what you who once
spoke from my dream
no longer tell.
The book is paradise.
An odor is a clue
to what was lost.
I seek & speak
son of a father
with no home or heart.
I bantereed with a friend
that there are speeds
beyond the speed
of light.
I spun around.
the calculus of two
plus two,
the mystery of
false attachments,
still persists.
I settled for
a lesser light a circumstance
found that my words
rang true.

by Jerome Rothenberg