The Real Subject [Whir]

Do not alarm yourself, I
could not rest content with 
moral lectures and continual 
repetition

like the solar system, I
could not hold my head up, made 
endlessly to 
glow

destined for grand ceremonies, I
was much affected by finding myself so
thin and so worn
down

(we use theory
to mean it is possible to 
choose, e.g., why I am just the
size I am)

a million million, a
cool and mortifying manner — what 
governs
motions

Copyright © 2004 Keith Waldrop. From The Real Subject: Queries and Conjectures of Jacob Delafon: With Sample Poems. Reprinted with permission of Omnidawn.