Nomenclature for the Time Being

What is that advent of blackness

that is the texture of lilac and barberry
Breakability. To be plain

to acquire the basic level of existence
all can be lost
in that particular resolve

Taxonomy then

I wrote everything down, you know
not that it matters. The notes won't survive the search

they won't survive the opposition to this living. Kingdom
hostage, Phylum hostage, Class hostage, Order
hostage, Family hostage, Genus hostage, Species the hostage

* * *

Kingdom ore, Phylum lenticular ore body, Class refractory

order refracting, Family lens
genus refractory ore, Species refraction

kingdom extracted, Phylum extracted, Class extract
order extraction, Family extracted, Genus extracted
species extracted

I won't tell you my exploits escaping this taxonomy

I am grateful to metaphor
I won't say what needs to be said, although"

contractile fibrous bundle producing movement"
I'll leave that there
it was the way the air felt, it

* * *

Was the autonomous gestures of a hand

a shoulder's discourse on effort, then
the paraphrase a bit of laughter does

someone walked the way a perfume walks
it was what was left after labour, after a time
after time itself, small, the implications

If I opened a door I could transcribe the technology

of a life, its pivot and breach, and joint
I know the skill of epiphytes

feet hanging, never touching the ground
eating air and grit and moisture, I do all these things
no attachment. Take this world