6 poems
from Human is to Wander
Palm-Wine Songs for the Ghost King
Awe, Incantation
solar tell, gravity's homeless other
translated guilt heard our satisfaction
Gateway Horus, overpowered Sphinx to
theory: ghost-hurtle obliterates slope
shoes, timbre — gather heads out
his road to the future
reached a fork
primitive races drawing
sounds from reeds
or strings allocating music
to the realm of gods
he had carried it far
away before I woke inside this wood
ghosts smart to trek
short or long distances if they could
not bear the music
stand still then the whole
of them in intentional activity
in ‘doing’ that these categories
are resolved — the body
which acts and has consequences
cannot be seen in dualistic terms
it works then naturally — he also believes
in something like them
only much more powerful
intelligent and reliable a guardian angel
will do so out in the world
years of belief in magic called upon
to compensate for argument no longer applied
with so many TV crews extracting daily
awesome images of death they were
to protect the living of course
but they fit the size of a dying child
Ore, Inclantation
our visitor has the quiet
confident look of one
who has chosen
to be she said
I noticed the silence of the house
on the faces of the guests
everyone on his best behavior
a keen anticipation where
the evil figure materializes
as ferocious animal
(it could not possibly turn itself into a little animal)
In those days without satellite navigation
it was much more risky than it is now
There were many attackers
he recalled and they came from all sides
from the church from behind
from the north and south
The course and temperature of the first greeting
are of utmost significance
to the ultimate fate of any relationship
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ACTION
An army and its camp. A tale of the interior called Opening from the North. The differ-
ence between rhyme and accent, rumor and a given name. The actual point to the os-
trich in any movement.
Or when movement is the antelope and the tale is of an enemy always just beyond
range. How yelling becomes planning, invoking becomes engaging, and noon is only a
matter of time.
When what’s left is a response called “home” and to be included means to find order in
the rhyme.
OPENING
The opposite of a plan. Or, the way an explanation surrounds itself with names. When
“place” no longer means “land” and night becomes the offering, perfectly acceptable,
for time on a train.
It is the ostrich at noon: neither necessary nor true but, like the rifle and hope, what a
system requires.
This only difference between “insect” and “injury” is the sound of what’s next (or
“nest”), the way tapping becomes something to count on. The way “enemy” is to “en-
counter” as “envelope” is to “explain.”
TRAIN
A troupe following its rhymes, an antelope following its insects, the nightly reasoning
that holds a nation to its names. How the need to inform finds opposites in “yam” and
“time” – and how sound from a group is as uniform as a mountain. If to explain is to
exit, then to hold is to peel (as in: “a fact”) – but the explanation of love as “a camp
held in time by sand and an ostrich” really is just another form of training.
Plain truth to the end.
TROOP
Truth and the room it occupies. The optional persona in the anecdote about an ostrich
and its time in camp. Place – and its elephant. (Or any lasting opposition to clarity.)
When truth is reason enough to kill and mud becomes a uniform insanity. It is the sys-
tem that begins when planning is neither overt nor over.
The yam is a nuisance, but it allows naming as a form of answer.
TROUPE
Treason. The rhyme it occupies. A unit performing exercises for the right hand (piece
called “Camp at Noon”). To be able to explain “X” but not “enemy” or “yam.” Remem-
bering to replace “insect” with “inspect” and “range” with “engage” before asking what
moves a unit.
Time is framed by this response to sound – and so, the elephant scratching its post, the
ostrich entering a cause only to be included.
Reason requires injury to become its own excuse. (The movement and its system,
saved by an ending.)
Born and raised in South Africa, Adrian Lürssen lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. His chapbook NEOWISE (comprised of work excerpted from Human is to Wander) is forthcoming from Trainwreck Press. Work in this manuscript has been published in Fence, The Boston Review, The Bombay Gin, Posit Journal, Word for/ Word, and places elsewhere. Collaborations with Norma Cole are forthcoming in Bay Area-based Second Stutter.