mmccxxxvii

To be is to have been and intending to be.           

                                            —Etel Adnan

u’ve been in here
4ever, haven’t u,
Olive?   Zero?  O?

since the day
the jacks jumped
out of their boxes

thru anydays
when i wd
accident, tell u

what’s in the
bOX (u weren’t
supposed to no).

yes those kinds
of everydays.
esp. the 1’s where

we’re dressed
to the 9’s.  like
u always r.

and why shouldn’t
u b, my Olive,
my Zero?  drawing

ever nearer, of
course; ever clearer
...?  but where,

dear Zero? not
nowhere.  but
where o where

o where o where?
...why surely there.
so closest to here.

as among us as
Italy’s perfectest
pigeons, our

dappled most
dapperest hero, our
dearest-dearest Zero.