1
I held the framework
of my life in mind
with some precision.
I knew when I was
where — or where I was
when — but not many
incidents of my past had
actually been preserved.
Instead the frame served
as a cargo cult runway,
forever inviting
the future to appear.
I existed finally
as the idea
of temporal extension.
2
The creeper
lineates
the wall.
Flowers as punctuation?
Can you elaborate
on the passage?
Double meaning,
superposition:
hair standing on end
makes a creature appear
larger, more ferocious.
Source: Poetry (November 2007).
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This poem originally appeared in the November 2007 issue of Poetry magazine
Rae Armantrout, one of the founding members of the West Coast group of Language poets, stands apart from other Language poets in her lyrical voice and her commitment to the interior and the domestic. Her short-lined poems are often concerned with dismantling conventions of memory, pop culture, science, and mothering, and these unsparing interrogations are often streaked with wit. “You can hold the various elements of my poems in . . .
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