BODY MOVES – TIM SEIBLES

For you there is a separate door in the air and you keep gliding through it over and over shutting me inside the open corridor of your walking— where did you get that rhythm? My soul scats a new jazz. Near you I am a dancing bear, tipsy on the heavy brew of my wishes. (for Anais Nin) In the afternoon when memories of the tongue’s two sides set your body afire and thoughts that tug at your fly hobgoble your sleepy brain like gnats imagine a world where the body is sacred where only through touching is the face of God revealed the pleasure ghosting over the skin like mist from a mountain lake and remember your life there with the others your heart adrift its own deep waters you want to be cloaked in the tongue’s satin robes so you kiss someone and find yourself warm inside a mouth as you find yourself now completely wrapped in air your good body dissolving hidden in cloth (to peacetime and prosperity) It is hard to know when to say nothing but right now seems like a good time— why, with Venus sitting on a cusp of moon and the federal cemetery kept like a garden what keeps me wanting to talk about things?

It’s not that I’m lonely. There are always the others: my friends who pray to the bartender my brothers, forever with one skinny reefer raised and there are women I know who love so good you never want to get dressed again. I’m not so stupid anymore. I’m not looking for myself—I’m right here—and sometimes complaining about this life seems silly. I live in a rich country: we have automobiles and Coca-Cola. People here die by natural causes.

There is so much beef I should be singing. Besides my country knows what I need. It says so on TV. It says Be all that you can be and I’ve always had wet dreams about the army so I get my hair trimmed and wait for commands. I end up with my friends who say Friday nights are for dancing.

I put on my best pants. I ask them do they dance because they feel happy. I ask them are they happy because they are hip. They say Yeah and You know and C’mon!

Mundus Artium (“Hope,” “Stranger,” “The Snail”) Sands (“Neverland,” “The Place’’) The Southwest Review (“The Ring Around the Moon”) The Sun (“The Body Knew”) Bloomsbury Review (“Big Mouth”) Black American Literature Forum (“The Word”) Library of Congress Control Number: 2012950932 ISBN: 978-0-88748-559-6 Copyright © 1988 by Tim Seibles All rights reserved Printed and bound in the United States of America LO De FeO ARs 2 Body Moves was first published by Corona Publishing Company, San Antonio, in 1988. First Carnegie Mellon University Press Classic Contemporaries Edition, February 2012 The publisher expresses gratitude to James Reiss, James W.

Hall, and Jesse Lee Kercheval for financial support toward the publica- tion of the Classic Contemporary Series. CONTENTS Big Mouth Yourself A Moment The Leap Who Knows To the World from a Restaurant The Snail José The Place Poem The Word Teaching The Body Knew Balance Creole Satin Robes Shutting Up The Shift Double-Dutch The Kiss The Fan Looking What Holds You The Future The Prayer Who Sweet Third Wish The Ring Around the Moon Nothing but Football Neverland Some of Them Threads and Fleas Stranger Hope Companion Light The Dragon 48 49 50 SI oo 54 56 58 39 60 6l 62 “What does what it should do needs nothing more.

The body moves, though slowly, toward desire. We come to something without knowing.” —Theodore Roethke eile we . Oi esa tal aT a 4cen a = pos = Ms 4 i al = > ’ Les De heme fal BIG MOUTH A few nights ago you slept with your mouth open and the moon slipped inside because you have such a big mouth and now your eyes glow like a jack-o-lantern’s. Now every evening when you look out the sparrows rally and the plants lean toward you as though sensing another dawn.

Dont try to explain. Imagine even tonight the trillion eyes left heavy and moonless. Don’t look at me. You slept with your big mouth open thinking you had every right and the moon snuck inside. 9 Already the broken sky has started chewing on stars and soon the night will be dressed like a widow. Don’t say anything. Don’t apologize. Don’t think of all the lovers by an otherwise moonlit lake fondling each other clumsily in the blackness getting nowhere because of you and your big mouth.

Be glad that your head glows. Be glad that you’ll never need a flashlight if your car dies on a country road. You slept with your mouth open, open like the bell of a tuba only bigger much bigger and the moon just couldn’t resist so be happy for that inner light. Be happy and shut-up shut-up shut-up. 10 YOURSELF It is morning. Your eyes are lit like candles. Throwing the covers off you say to yourself It is already tomorrow.

On the kitchen table there is a loaf of blue bread and a bowl of blue fruit.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

Book Information

• Unique ID: df5ac3102bc114e4
• File Extension: .pdf
• File Size: 2,362,333 bytes (2.253 MB)
• Title: –
• Author: Unknown
• ISBN: 9780887485596
• Pages: 69
• Language: English (en)

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• Estimated Reading Time: 43.7 minutes
• Total Words: 8,741
• Total Characters: 48,257
• Average Words per Page: 126.68
• Average Characters per Page: 699.38

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