molecular lament

john martone

samuddo / ocean 2012

molecular lament copyright 2012 john martone samuddo / ocean ISBN 978-1-300-16418-0

for j.r.
Where did they come from? (Silence.)

22

a drought lettuce & coriander rowing hemoglobin a note see (moebius strip) juke & kallikak teasel july 23 a skin sow-thistle a chair from olean larynx molecule maglia SNPs plant-lice

[A]ll these types of expression are subtly rooted in wrong view --Ajahn Passano &Ajahn Amaro

A seeker has no future. Ajahn Chah

a drought

moon -his misshapen eye

he dreams of labrador wakes up to that electric fan

10

lettuce & coriander

seed capsule 8-seat canoe

a seed capsule yr skin color

11

seed capsules when did people finally know

12

you walk past lettuce seed capsules burst

13

a seed capsule bursts & there is a solar system

14

not the right place to land lettuce seed on this desk

lettuce seeds too mostly lost

lettuce seed tastes of dust

15

groups of 5 fingertips coriander

unlike rain coriander seeds not see-thru

16

rowing

deet & sweat in my eyes heron glides over lake

17

morning after all that rowing shoulders

18

weathered as driftwood oars head back out

oarlocks instead of a heron shrieking

halfway out you stop hearing oarlocks

19

this cove yes once before

20

laughing children fishing

2 pair of wings & a long tail this rowboat

oars not heavy now dragonflies

21

someone else in this boat w/ you dragonfly

dragonflies people are too heavy

22

not alone dragonfly on yr own dragonfly

23

(the small waves too dragon flies)

24

someone walking back & forth fire flies here & there

25

hemoglobin

tomatoes blister people havent got a chance

26

o those dust clouds cumulus when you water

27

salt of the earth & this droughts tomatoes

tomato sandwich basil sprig black-back bees!

28

tomatoes & bread or just tomatoes

29

those red okra heirloom hemoglobin

30

proteins fold-up so do your poems & days

31

that mu-bacteriophage a water-tower

the mu bacteriophage an old dog collapses

32

atammayata
The Blessed One has spoken of nonidentification (non-fabrication) [atammayata] even with regard to the attainment of the first jhana; for however they conceive it, the fact is ever other than that. So, making non-identification their focal point, they neither exalt themselves for that attainment of the first jhana nor do they disparage others. -- Ajahan Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro

he sketches bacteriophages no perspective

33

prokaryotes in the heatwave library

3 billion years to this a cellular membrane

in a library cooling center cant understand that membrane

34

invisible world people have four flagella

flagella and tendrils too clockwise

35

Rhodospirillum centenum entire cell colonies move in unison toward the light

36

halophile endo spore in a salt crystal two hundred fif ty million years & you complain about the wait

37

empty lot where that cabin stood that cabin

38

gutters rusting should be ashamed

39

the higgs boson flies right thru this slum

40

60 now see microscopes just a toy

60 now see microscopes no toy

41

watching tv always his back to that window

now hes dead they tear out all those walls

42

bit of garden-twine plasmid

43

you not you bodys flora

44

so many cells but he cant name that bird song

45

a hummingbird flees the butterfly bush its dusk

46

thinking of things late at night turning a lamp on & off

47

(he contemplates the way of science) pick something small that is yr life

48

yr own body a cloud chamber

49

hanging the wash tonight clothes pins dead stars

50

struggle for key starlight see doors not locked

51

a note

that birds falling tone tieng viet

52

nothing left to feel bird-note small boat heading out

53

bird-note steep prow gunwales!

bird-note sails off earths edge

little wave nothing more to the world bird-note

54

everything people have given me bird-note

far beyond please & thank you bird-note

thats it bird-note silence

55

listened all day theres only one bird-note

56

see

building a picture-frame a raft

framing a picture driving a nail above his bed

she holds a pitcher above the waves

57

shoes under his bed & shoe box of photos

box of photos spilled on the floor its all water

58

(moebius strip)

falling thru life maybe no other side

59

falling from heights of that molecule

birth & death & whats between within a molecule

60

those genes so much junk you junk-man!

61

62

juke & kallikak

juke & kallikaks garden fence fell in

63

dust in nose eyes ears mouth takes you back

64

juke & kallikak gardening a drought

juke & kallikak never mow never weed

65

juke & kallikaks shovel & hoe left out all night

66

juke & kallikak all those books fool no one

67

dont forget sam es tragon juke & kallikak

68

in the blink of an eye theres a house & its gone

69

70

teasel
Dispsacus laciniatus

teasel stem cries out for wire cutters!

71

stem leaf bract flower heads single barb teasel

72

teasel tall as me this drought

73

teasel flower bracts open hand not to be con fused w/ thistle

74

so many spines yes you are extraterres trial teasel

75

farmer shakes his head seeing me hung up on teasel

76

teazle for warts & wens its juice in ears kills worms in them

77

any thing singles a thorn

78

depth of dande lion & teasel roots & as for you

79

teasels white ring-galaxy my hand-lens is useless

80

molecules talk about togetherness

letting go like two helices

81

teasel this will be a teasel planet

82

all the teasel antennae wavelengths

83

sunflowers too turn from this heat

in his underclothes & this drought goodbye

84

july 23

all this rain all those islands falling on this island

85

rain & people falling on an island flowing back to sea

86

rain rain lifes one island

87

rain falling youre born & die -maybe different islands

88

rain blows in doors swing open all by themselves

89

heaven itself that rain now its over

90

bathing suit on bare floor theres no one

91

morning rain bringing a nap

92

rain & boxes come & go an island

93

eyedrops whole skys eyedrops

(glaucoma)

94

holds an antique sextant up to island rain

95

cuts himself on broken glass an old box of toys

96

lost at sea eternally lost on an island road

97

eyes closed fingering slipper shells

98

a small box of slipper shells in a larger box of books

99

box of books not too heavy on an island

100

old red book outer space in his room on this island

101

people boxes islands too come & go

102

glacial moraine must have been in fifth grade

103

her walker & those sailboats at rest

104

plums on the table she nods in her chair such dark clouds

105

her hands yr hands same veins islands

white hair fluorescent lights

106

what clock ticking so fast

107

theyve torn down that island school & you still come to it

108

bird song far as ear can reach an island

109

that perfect mornings work an island

110

111

112

eye level sea gulls

113

they finally get that blue sail squared

114

your legs folded weathered gull comes close

115

holding her cane old woman walks into sea

116

wind shifts his notebooks square-sailed

117

islands lonely crab boats out there

118

a skin

shirt skin nothing stays on

skin cells the great wall seen from space

119

bare skin my electric fan such closeness

bare skin my electric fan such distance

120

sleeping naked fitted bed-sheet slipping off

121

bare skin all the suns layers

122

(that photo of olson)

bare skin huge white man ancient mayans

skin an island beach eroding

123

low-lying island skin slipping under

retina or eardrum circle of skin

124

half-dressed -out w/ the trash

skin & internal membranes too everyone else

125

skin pouring sweat filming over eyeglasses

126

strips & stains chest of drawers all for old underwear

cherry wood-stain -worlds a bubble too

127

all those ghosts all your joinery chest of drawers

medi tation there is his skin stained too

128

sow-thistle
Sonchus asper

spiny leaved sowthistle milk!

129

sow-thistles hollow stem nipple

half-naked not bitter sow-thistle

sow thistle still sowing itself in a drought

130

a lot in common spiny sow thistle

131

skinny trailer-park people spiny sow-thistle

132

nothing but focal points sow-thistle

133

sowthistle dande lion sun flower mustve been one once

134

spiny sow-thistle he doesnt even keep pigs!

sow-thistle -- just guess what its like inside his place

135

having autism picking pretty sow-thistle

136

spiny sow-thistle his water-glass overflows

137

ten thousand suns spiny sowthistle

138

a chair from olean

(thinking of bob lax)

kitchen chair good for any room

139

just what his room needs broken chair

broken chair dust has settled in

use your eyes broken chairs got tongue & groove

140

fixed that kitchen chair last night its morning!

141

same thing over & over well thats what bird song is

142

larynx

he wants to make each word smaller

143

say that word feel the voids ligament

144

never seen saves your life every time you swallow epi glottis

said & gone just like that word & you

145

larynx? -- cartilage not even bone!

146

long before cunei form throat carti lage

147

wordless -larynx

ship-ribbed larynx

148

threadbare
for Cecilia Vicua

Their books were loose bundles of string. -- Charles Mann

just about done here dressed in rags

149

story of yr life string all balled up

150

in the end telo meres & spindle some childrens book

151

all those cells di viding there you are

want to ask those chromo somes why

152

such a clever molecule making you not so

153

-- all those hy drogen bonds & youre still lonely?

there it goes again that codon

154

all those cells dividing & you never feel a thing

155

get ting too big for your brit ches that mo le cule

156

take all those mo le cules tie your shoe

157

still lost in that tangle of inter state roads last nights dream a thread

158

some molecules dream up pictures that are nothing there you go

159

you pick that knot apart & then what? tie it again? study its length in sun namely nothing -or just the sun?

160

molecule

bed made this morning expecting rain

tying the left first then right thats you

those molecules raise their eyes its raining

161

rain now dont turn on the light

the shortest wavelengths stream straight thru those molecules

molecules full of rain were alive

162

molecules cid all these molecules

163

that perfect poem death you dont know when

those spectral lines lines of a spectrum --

164

molecules picking the last tomatoes & peppers

goldenrod these molecules wish you farewell

165

a molecule enfolds the poor mans lament

pretty simple silence

166

maglia camiseta Unterhemd maillot undertrja spodnja onderhemd a lt mahelogle

undershirt

undershirt at dusk walking back to a group home

167

mosquitoes late to be out in an undershirt

168

old undershirt holds his head up to cirrus

169

undershirt a flag at dusk

170

undershirt could be francis or shaka

171

old under shirt yes empty hands

172

undershirt waiting green or red or green

173

theres one way home old under shirt

174

theyll bury you in that under shirt

175

just that big undershirt of course hes lost in it

176

milk breath & body smell under shirt

177

dark now time for bed under shirt comes off

178

ending up in such a room old undershirt

179

180

SNPs

Pastoral

8 diopter lenses & 600 power still blind on the path endoplasmic reticulum winding smooth and rough, channels of cytosol, bells ringing, little cosmic lipid planet globes, golgi body petals fluttering down on mitochondrial islands, cristae and cisternae, palaces flying thru space, lotus ponds and jewel trees, rows of railings (the bilayer membrane) and seven rows of trees, molecules countless as Ganga sands O Shariputra! born in this land of bliss youll soon reach perfection.

181

FoxP2 on chromosome 7 and grammar arises, awkward as your big toe. Dont think youre special -- birds too, all those extinct ones, shriek and sigh with it. A protein all you can ever say, ever come to, a little pleasure handed down, nucleus too big, a galumphing body, the way parent lets child feel so clever winning at checkers or anyone saying, you are not your genes.

182

TTAGGG TTAGGG TTAGGG TTAGGG TTAGGG Telomere stub-ends losing copies whenever division arises TTAGGG TTAGGG TTAGGG -- its a Mahayana dharani putting everything in order, all thats to come, a mantram like the whole molecule but shorter TTAGGG TTAGGG -- and when those copies are gone

183

Words and figures youre not so smart -swell-headed blebb. Any cells got it all figured out -- that death receptor right in the membrane clues a deathgene (TNFRSF6 on chromosome 10), when its time to turn capsase loose, darken chromatids, snip dna to thread-ends, trash the works. Any cell lays it all out in the code, but clumsy human heads take so long -Without the death-gene, hands wouldnt have fingers, couldnt do a thing. We sit all the while, pondering penserosos, or fly to Mars. And all a cell does is divide, going, going, gate, gate, paragate, parasamgate ...

184

plant-lice

plant-lice just try to name one

plant-lice too picking tomatoes

days getting shorter numberless plant-lice

185

plant-lice think of their cells

dont mind us plant-lice

186

even when he takes off his glasses plant-lice

187

plant-lice poems dont come close

plant-lice this freckled light

plant-lice & hes planting more spinach

188

60 years nothing to plant-lice

everyone loses everything plant-lice

189

forever a clean world plant-lice

190

plant-lice people have no idea

191

a good nights sleep at last it was cold

192

193