Poem Considers Quietude Vs. Post-Avant

and the history of the sign
that got us here, locked
chain-link barriers to the oversky

Poem remembers standing at the top
of some famous building, maybe
the CN Tower, and looking through
one of those quarter binoculars
on the clunky swivel

you can imagine: the competition
for Poem’s attention was multiple

the material word like this one
stands or scans and the moment,
like this one, takes a side

grain or rallies or trees or technique
and any hope of integration is lost

Reader walks up and asks Poem,
“what are you looking at?”

the answer is a matter of
attention, a field of vision
turned down to the small logo
pasted to the binoculars or
up sweeping up all the details
into a vision of the city and why

particle or wave, Poem
supposes, process or
what it gets you

later, Poem answers,
“the commodification of social life”
but it’s a little late
don’t you think

the plunge to the ground
is punctuated by a history of forms