Nightingale by Paisley Rekdal

Author:Paisley Rekdal
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Copper Canyon Press
Published: 2019-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

III

Quiver

after Carl Phillips

What do we do

with memory, do we burn

or do we embellish it, do we

study it as we do the elk

projected onto the archery

studio screen, summer’s

gelatin halo shivering

between the antlers, replayed

whether or not

anyone will come

to practice on or witness it: is this

what memory is:

static, unchangeable

mind we step into

and the clearing opens: again,

light rain, the scent

of moss, puffs of steam

rising off the slick,

black muzzle? Does the image,

over time, brighten

so feverishly inside us,

tearing through

the eye, the mind, the body: is it we

who wander out now, tentative,

into late morning light?

What does it mean

to forget so much,

happily, greedily, if not

that we are nourished most

on loss? The video

spools, the elk steps into

then out of its field;

who cares, it was dead

the second the camera

found it anyway, captured

and projected endlessly

so that we might practice making it

dead again.

Is this the image to convince you

of the blinding

limits to our world?

Is this another entry

to your newest opening?

The animal turns, the screen

inside its body shakes:

open, bright, pocked

by tips of arrows

that never find their mark.

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