Nicole Brossard Poems

1

an urban image from the eighties
when we hung out at Chez Madam Arthur
and at the back of the room
...

towns with their ancient piles of misfortune
wavering
between memory and floods of virtual fury
...

towns with the word coral
in order to observe from inside
the shadow of veins
...

so many received ideas like a chasm
in my muscles
someone says very close it's you but it's us
thinking about bridges, ghats,
...

no graveyards actually only the dead
words to not say, no given names, no one's name
no misfortune yet, little steps that ice over
each year I walk through a new town
...

at the hour of brief morning desires
a drop of water and its light
later to counter the dust
...

(from her to ravish meaning ravine On the other side
artifice slumbers in the green. The shadow follows hour
by hour hollow and gloomy and which call me forth)
...