A Dice Throw

A DICE THROW












    AT ANYTIME




        EVEN WHEN CAST IN

    EVERLASTING CIRCUMSTANCES

        FROM THE DEPTH OF A SHIPWRECK


    WHETHER

            the




                Chasm


        whitish

                fulltide

                        frenzied

                            down a declivity

                                    desperately glides


                                                on a wing


                                                its own

                                                            in








advance fallen back from a failure to guide its flight

                        and covering all the outspurts

                            cutting off all the surges



        far far within recalls


the shadow buried in the deep veiled by this variant sail


                            to the point of matching

                                    the span


            with its gaping trough like the shell


                            of a ship


                        listing to this side or that


                                        THE MASTER

        risen

            inferring


                                                from this conflagration



                                                            that there



                                                        as you threaten


                                    the one and only Number that cannot




                                                                hesitates

                                                            a corpse cut off

        rather

                than play

                            the game

                        like a hoary maniac

                            in the name of the waves

                                                                        one


                                                            direct shipwreck

            gone beyond the old reckonings

        helmsmanship now forgotten with age



                    he used to grip the helm

    at his feet

                of the united horizon


    is in preparation

            tossed and blended

                in the fist that seeks to grasp it

    some destiny and also the winds


    be any other


                Spirit

                        in order to cast it

                                            into the blast

                            closing the division and passing proudly on


    by its arm from the secret it withholds





    surges over his head

    spills down as a submissive beard


    of man this


        with no vessel

            no matter

                    where vain


    ancestrally not to open his hand

                            which is clenched

                        far beyond his useless head


        a bequest on his disappearance


                                    to someone

                                            ambiguous


                    the ulterior immemorial demon

    having

        from non-lands

                    led

    the old man toward this ultimate conjunction with probability


                                    he

                                        his puerile shadow

    caressed and polished and restored and washed

                            softened by the waves and set free

                from the hard bones lost amid the timbers



                                            born


                                                from a frolic

    the sea attempting via the old man or the latter versus the sea

                            an idle chance

                                                                    Nuptials

    whose

            veil of illusion being splashed back their obsession

            along with the wraith of a gesture


                            will falter

                            and fall



                                    sheer folly










        NEVER WILL ABOLISH


        AS IF

                                                        A simple



                                                    in the silence





                                                    in some imminent



                                                            hovers





    insinuation


    inrolled ironically

                        or

                            the mystery

                                        hurled down

                                                    howled out


    swirl of hilarity and horror



    on the brink of the abyss

                                without sprinkling it

                                                    or escaping


                            and draws from it the soothing virgin sign

                                                                        AS IF






                            an utterly lost and lonely quill







                                                            except






    that a cap of midnight abuts it or grazes it

                                and fixes

            on the velvet crumpled by a dark burst of laughter




                        this rigid whiteness



    ridiculous

                            opposed to the sky

                too vividly

                            not to mark

                                in miniature detail

                                                whoever

                    a bitter prince of the reef


                        caps himself with it heroically

                            irresistible but restrained

                        by his limited reason manly

                                                        in a flash of lightning


    anxious

            expiatory and pubescent

                                                        mute






                                            The lucid and lordly plume

                                                on the invisible brow

                                        shimmers

                                                then overshadows

                                                    a dim and dainty form

                                                in her siren sinuosity



                                        with forked and impatient terminal










        laughter


                    that



                        IF



    of vertigo



    erect




        long enough

            to slap

        scales


            some rock



        a false mansion

                suddenly

                        dispelled in mists


                    which laid

                        a limit on the infinite


                                                            WAS

                                            a product of the stars








        IT WOULD BE




            no

                    worse

                                neither more nor less

                                                            but as much indifferently as



                                                NUMBER



                                            MIGHT HAVE EXISTED

                                except as the fragmentary hallucination of some death throe


                                        MIGHT HAVE BEGUN AND ENDED

                                seeping out though denied and enclosed with manifest

                                            eventually

                                        outspread with a certain profusion in a rare state

                                            MIGHT HAVE BEEN RECKONED


                                    evidence of the total sum however scant

                                            HAVE ENLIGHTENED




                    CHANCE




    Down falls

                the quill

                        a rhythmic suspension of diaster


                                                        to bury itself

                                                in the primordial spray

                            whose frenzy formerly leapt from there to a peak

                                                        that is blasted

                                    in the constant neutrality of the abyss





                                NOTHING



                                        of the unforgettable crisis

                                                            or else

                                                                the deed


might have been achieved keeping in view every result that is non

                                                                human


                        WILL HAVE TAKEN PLACE

                    a commonplace upsurge is shedding absence


                                    OTHER THAN THE PLACE

a lowly splashing of some kind as if to scatter the vacuous action

                                at once which otherwise

                                    by its deceit

                            would have established

                                        the loss



in these indefinite regions

                            of the swell

                                        where all reality is dissolved



EXCEPT

        on high

                    PERHAPS

                                as far away as a place









    merges with the beyond


                            outside any interest

                        assigned to it

                                        in a general way

    by a certain obliquity in a certain declivity

                                                of flames


            toward

                    what must be

                                Septentrion as well as North



                                                    A CONSTELLATION


                                cold with neglect and disuse

                                                not so much

                                                that it fails to number

                                        on some vacant and higher surface

                                            the successive impact

                                                                starrily

                                    of a full reckoning in the making


        keeping watch

                    wondering

                            rolling on

                                      shining and pondering



                                            before finally halting

                                        at some last point that sanctifies it



                                    EVERY Thought emits a Dice Throw