The aquarium deserted now,
From my favorite poetry site:
[the aquarium deserted now,]
the aquarium deserted now,
this is the song at dusk I write in the notebook:
strange skin
not quite seal
not quite dolphin
inchoate
texture like
something you forget
something you didn’t even see
the first time
old shoe
sentient being with others in watery caves
lights off
with motive & mind up a ladder
mouth moving
quixotic mind
quick flick
who are me
who haunt me
please haunt me
summoned by the dream
the kusha grass instructs
you might say a kind of ceremony
gather up these nightmares
this in a public space
where many minds meet
& pass around the objects of this dream
a blindfold, a crystal, a card with a bodhisattva upon it
gather them up & making an offering
all the bikkus going down on their knees for this
in this world marked out by the augur
interstices between living & dead
an initiation on the nature of time
& of continuity in a dark time
mean world: humanity
dream world: manatee
secret world: om mani padme manatee hum
om mani humanity padme hum
the center of reference becomes movement in this ritual
ANNE WALDMAN