The Big Cats, Part XII

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“The Big Cats” is a 12-part poetry cycle written and read by Val Vinokur, and published weekly at Public Seminar. For more, read Part I, Part II, Part III , Part IV, Part V, Part VI, Part VII, Part VIII, Part IX, Part X, and Part XI.

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THE BIG CATS

XII.

ZOOM/MUSE

The platelets of love clog
the arteries of sense,
movement, plaque the veins
of retreat and restraint.
Like the dreamer in “White Nights,”
I see each of you (& me) in a box
inside a box in a box, nervous
nesting dolls pursued by
invisible assailants, and
instantly I fall “in love, with
no one of course. Just my ideal…
From a distance…”

Across an infinity of Russian,
an infinitive gathers into
an imperative: prosnutsa––
to wake up––from the word
sohn––which means both slumber
and the dream that flickers there.
Awakened from a deep dream:
a type, a character awake in a box,
sometimes just a name, lower case
white on black.

Would that I could rescue each
of us. Only then, who would rescue
each of us from a type like me––
a dreamer who forgets his dreams?

(March 2021)