there is a library of strangers in Dublin

Phil Hall

  there is a library of strangers in Dublin
Kraków Iqaluit Constantinople Petticoat Junction
  I have borrowed two silences from — the best sleep of my life
& light moving in a Stan Brakhage film

  far away at home at last
I could not be reached breached or dissuaded
  I slept forever & took forever to wake up & when I did
there goes your mime teacher all in white

  light was archeologizing a patchwork quilt on a bed
dusting each snag as if there were no budget constraints
  the approach of the children & the long-eared goat
was a Latin declension enacted

  there is a library of strangers in Dublin
the Troy-warrens of its archives boustrophedonic
  silence stoops to eyeball each shard & tag it
light tests its white hands against walls in the air

  (distracted indifference from the old goat & the children)

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

Phil Hall's works copyright © to the author.