[1]
FUTUREFOUND BUTTON:
A dialogue between C (she) and F (the plant)
C: They say regrets are based on wrong premises. What do you think.
F: I think very little.
C: Why are you here.
F: To fill in the silence.
F: What’s Sam to you.
C: A place.
F: What’s a place.
C: Where one is found.
F: Are you?
C: I’m as found as a button is.
F: What about the others.
C: They are legit.
F: What about me.
C: Frail, but has the potential to be of great sentimental value.
F: The series of poems you’ve been working on –
C: Love vessels with tiny holes.
F: What’s it about.
C: “the curious / pleasure of the doomed, as they go under”. John Burnside, The Fair Chase (2011).
F: Tell me more about it.
C: No.
F: I wonder what happiness is.
C: Having too much time but little will to spend it.
F: What are you doing.
C: Looking for my sharpness.
F: What are you doing.
C: In China we say ‘wisdom tax’. What you pay for the wisdom gained. That is, innocence lost.
C: Say it.
F: Careful with your tufts.
C: What do you mean.
F: Your company is tender and open to exploitation.
C: I’m good at being cuddled.
F: I’m thirsty.
[2]
MUCH TOO NEGATIVE
(a parody)
F: I’ve a niggling feeling this is not going to last.
Chorus of Knowledge:
Benevolence is benevolence,
especially when negatively
figured.
F: What am I to you.
C: Shadows in the light.
F: What’s the light.
C: Sam.
Chorus of Knowledge:
We don’t know if hope
is a virtue.
C: They say regrets are based on wrong premises.
F: It’s too soon for regrets, too late for the rest.
F: The series of poems you’ve been working on –
C: Love vessels with tiny holes.
F: Why holes.
C: To the onlookers’ delight.
F: We’re in no delight. We’re simply bound by duty, which demands that we’re always right.
Chorus of Knowledge:
The finest way
to make things right
is getting rid of them
quietly.
F: What are you doing.
C: Experimenting with being unreasonable.
F: What are you doing?
C: Rearranging the facts.
C: Say it.
F: You’ve a serrated tongue.
C: I don’t mind a wet kiss.
F: I need my dignity intact.
Chorus of Knowledge:
Pair your worldly
success with invincible
authority.
F: I dislike the negativity
of the way your facial expressions
manage themselves. And how
your words misrepresent
my good enough intentions
to the world. In which, mind you, prevalent
are my friends.
Chorus of Knowledge:
To tell a truth
from a lie – look
where the winners are. Believe them
to the best of your ability.
Something true enough to hold
sway, true enough to ease
one’s guilt.
C: Why are you here.
F: To grow you up a bit.
Chorus of Knowledge:
Small marks fixable
by a therapist.
———————
In the absence of a much loved audience, 2022
nothing in particular
dimensions vast