by Rodrigo Toscano
CREDIT
Cut off--
"so
on your way!"
held
(were you?)
(in and around old '95)
The white luck of markets
deliberate odds
emptiness?
No universal luxuries
to poeticize here
Rationing then was for calm
Rationing now is for rage
ORGANIZATION
Gauntlets of indictments
to speak through
(did you?)
MEMORY
what's missing
pressing
meaning
(little as a neutral concept)
They began with
what they had
was changing
Institutional Agreements
canceled
at the drop of a hat
the rate-of-profit hat
still falling . . .
dragging with it
you too
activist
Began with clues
or rumors
of consensus
were accumulating
are dispersing
What person
couldn't sense force
aimed at their body
was likely ill
What person
couldn't free words
dictated by force
was likely . . .
(here
in and around old '95
merely)
(and not so merely
did they falter)
WORDWORKERS
everyone
plugged
away
being taken
MEMORY
what's left
spend it
like there's no . . .
[sundried flower lit by the math of
by the smiling mock
by the penury
of our predicament
called
TOMORROW
Rodrigo Toscano teaches English and Spanish in the Bay Area.
The Disparities will be published later this year by Sun & Moon Press.
This is the seventh section from his book-length poem, Partisans,
to be published next year by Guernica (Toronto).
