the winter anthology
Vol. 2
James Arthur
reed ships
All colliding bodies
should collide somewhere perpetually, and Jericho
should always be breaking,
echoing on (reed ships
on the Tigris, hooves in the Rubicon, all circles
lapping, boat to boat)—
Why can’t I remember
what everyone knows?
No utterance endures. Air carries sound.
No voice leaves the Earth
unless it leaves as light.