LIMITLESS TINY BOAT
RUTH DANON B L A Z E V O X [ B O O K S ] Buffalo, New YorkLimitless Tiny Boat by Ruth Danon Copyright 2015 Published by BlazeVOX [books] All rights reserved.No part of this book may be reproduced without the publishers written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews. Printed in the United States of America Interior design and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza Cover art: I See You by Gary Buckendorf First Edition ISBN:978-1-60964-209-9 Library of Congress Control Number: 2015937802 BlazeVOX [books]131 Euclid Ave Kenmore, NY 14217 [email protected] publisher of weird little books BlazeVOX [ books ] blazevox.org 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 15 IF THE POEM ANNOUNCED ITS ARRIVAL on a limitless, tiny boat, would you demand white linen on the table? a glass of water? I.THE ARCHITECTURE OF WIND 19 SOMETHING LARGER THAN THE SELF I DONT UNDERSTAND Going out is something a boat does leaving a harbor. I cannot explain many thingsfor sure not why the boat goes out. It is often this way for me, and the harbor is as puzzling a place as any with its ropes and anchors and greasy piers. It smells of mortality, dead fish against pilings and salt and always the impulse to flee. The waves go chop chop against the sides of the boat. The predictable storm ensues. No one remarks on the loneliness of disembarking, arriving at night, way too late, in a shadowed town and no one thereglad and waiting. 20 OUTWARD 1. I would never build a house on a steep inaccessible cliff nor in a solitary desert neither upon the eggs of birds nor upon a field of acorns. I did not say this exactly.I said I am alone. I am ashamed. I said I am so thirsty I want something to drink. And I said there are small shells crushed beneath my feet. And I also said one simple thing. (Never to go against the grain.) Think of this as a random series of facts. The real trick is to say it out as flat as possible. Really the trick is to estimate from here, the journey outward. 21 2. We begin at a fixed point, deprived of light. The tradeoff begins at the limits. Desire is a random fact. Think of it.Desire is interfering with me. 22 3. I threw the china out the window and the glasses and cups and all the pictures of him I had around the house. I laid out the tarot cards and the tea. I hopped on a slow boat, gave it a ghost of chance to get there. (All white stone is softer than red.) 23 4. Consider the simple tools. The ax. The ax making its own handle. (Never to go against the grain.) I do not understand you or your alternatives I said primly. (I am pinching my pennies.Eventually this house must fall and fall.) (Mousetalk) 24 5. Under the old paint, brass and glass, wood, the original gleam. Light and air. First I strip everything. Then I paint the walls. I have lost something I said and I want it back. I did not say it, but it is true that doors should imitate the windows. From whatever side we take in light we ought to have free sight of the sky. 25 6. I could simply start, could count myself lucky knowing that everything tends to a particular moment. How to account for it without falsifying the record. Talking is talking. 26 7. I can take a hard line when I have to. I is not a name. A name not claimed is no name. I will argue the point since I have no choice. Something is there, a boat in the water just beyond the horizon. You cant feel the boat moving but somehow it gets there. 27 8. A vision. The colors of an attitude. The sea rolling up. The boat on its path. We are neither of us where we think. You, the one who listens, you are a steady customer and you wait with your hands cradling the cup of coffee. Truth is in details. Trust me, you said suddenly, trust me. (What am I building? What house is this that we must work so hard?) And that great stretch of the water still to cross. But heres this. Acute. This certainty. Every other possibility has exhausted itself.
