FRANÇOIS LUONG

 

 

                                     



THIS

 

1

 

 

this      of you        as

it is rewritten        or said

            for you        as face

 

now the word place

 

not for street on the hill

not for bell tower

behind branches at night

 

but for moment of encounter

 

these words are not meant

                    to take shape

 

our gaze reads the skin

of your face as page

with the word violence

 

and the word desire

 

now the hand stutters

            and surrenders

 

 


 

 

 

2

 

 

this which we

make ourselves to share

 

the fire escape

and the iron railing

 

an i or an l on

the brick wall

 

on the other side

 

inside a painted word

half-erased

 

standing still these

things we must do

 

the broken letter above

the city and its encounters

 

our hands stand for want


 

 

 

3

 

 

          this half-line

          with no point          of departure

 

                    expanding & retracting

                     as ditches & digs

          into            flesh & styrofoam

 

 

 

                    past the dirge

                    past the interstices

while we gaze          at the shadows

 

                    disseminating

onto the wall                    teeth

 

 

 

          protrude          through the rift

                    moist & fibrous with

          shellac & acrylic

 

 

 

          the urge to step back

lies inside & outside

                    of the center

 

                              a riddle

          ejaculating through


 

 

 

4

 

 

this spiral of anodized copper

 

                            made

         

           scripture          a code for

 

 

what has and has not been

 

                             cut

 

           into stone or

                  clay

 

 

                      the word shift

fissured          diffuses

 

                along the strokes of the sign

 

a series of ligatures cut

                      by the reed stylus

          for accounting of the city

 

                 creek for tree

 

         three lines for mountain

 

 

       through refraction

          the landscape

                             as revealed

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                      

 

      

 

                                   

 

 


TYPO 20