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What about the times when the intimate other remains opaque to the desiring subject?

                                    (Lauren Berlant)

 

What about the shadows this time of day?

The tea mug’s, say, torqued oblong by the angle

of the sun, selling the solidity

of this round glass-topped table

to one red patio stone, grit-surfaced.

The shadow of one rusting iron chair,

its cushionless seat pie-crust-latticed.

The table legs’ distorted curvature.

What about the shadow of the outline

of the tabletop, its circumference

proof of its presence, by implication?

What about the tabletop itself?  Glass

casts a shadow, too, gives itself to view

as darkness despite the light passing through.

 

Harvey Hix

Harvey Hix
 has published eleven poetry collections, including the 2014 As Much As, If Not More (2014). His prose works include As Easy As Lying: Essays on Poetry (2002) and Lines of Inquiry (2011). He has co-translated the work of Estonian poets and edited several anthologies, including Wild & Whirling Words: A Poetic Conversation (2004), New Voices: Contemporary Poetry from the United States (2008) and Made Priceless: A Few Things Money Can’t Buy (2012).