ASSEMBLY: an annotation

Assume first position.

In chair-lined vaults
through which
languages propel.

curved rows of
shell-like seats await
your attendance:

soft thud of pedals,
spurts of type
flit across a screen,
they flash, but words
can be so clunky, shouldered in,
not piano,
more forte,
eke them
out.

The shorthand stretches

through fluid foyers,
silent arteries of the institution,
pulsing lengths of bloody carpet.

It pulls away into another hand,
‘another tongue’,
second position:


score forms, words sweep down the bow
and gather along strings, quick slurps
of breath feed wind.
shared sustenance
of one clear note,
though walls apart. speech spread shrill.

Third position:
body paces, poses, squares up to the interior.
edged along the sofa,
feet directed to the carpet, they
anticipate the moment,
beckon, wedge
the door wide open,
prime for new enunciations?

Beat cuts in, thumping walls awake. drums at night, archers shoot light
to the ashy sky.
words transform at the taste of being launched

as fresh stars.

Voices rise, the choral motion asks you to hear gaps, requires knowing
when to sing -

translation being just as much what we hear
as
what is said -
knowing
when
and how
to listen.

to the hum of residue that lingers, decisions, voices yet to spark the sky

what’s tacit sits
on the verge of a verb,
an action:
listen, speak, assemble.

let bare feet, bare hands gesture
through acrid history, muted glass cases.
let the drum pour. let words ride in
on horsehair, swimming there.

let’s assemble
in the ventricles,
lift and wag
the red tongue carpet, practice ‘different breath’,
listen

til the chandelier,
it starts
to shake.