SUBJECT>Re: Half Life POSTER>Asher EMAIL> DATE>1108663176 IP_ADDRESS>sol.lib.uwo.ca PREVIOUS>83527 NEXT> IMAGE> LINKNAME> LINKURL>

David--thanks for considering this. I was thinking of "forge" used in relation to a bunch of other poems where "forge" is used as a pun, as in forging a document, or an identity. Forage is quite a cool word though and your reasons are good for subing "forge"

I'll post a rewrite here, in case any one feels so inclined to respond. It works better with white space, but I have no idea how to use html. Best, AG

Half Life

He attempts to forge himself again--to bore into the absence of white skin;
he is an optical allusion;
a forced smile says I am unstable.
He has a short half life.

Twinkies buried in the Nevada desert have no half life,
so goes the urban myth passed on, passed down, turned over.

("Twinkie" is the dream of the linguistic purist.)

Holisms split in Tamil Nadu. The elephant struggles with the bells
around its neck while the priest worships it with sandalwood paste.

-If you want a blessingful touch of its trunk; give me the desert father
Anthony struggling with the devil in a bomb suit. Or COD, he says.

(Myths have a shorter half life in radioactive
sand.)

He begins a sentence again. To use Eng/lish
to love Eng/lish.
His enemy is his best front.

(Decide something for once.)

Build a temporary lean-to in space until space collapses it;
shorten the breath slightly; feel the heart pacer pace slightly too

quick. Trip your self daily; build up a daily holism
with the most obvious hole. Thread a frayed needle.

(These are some notes he scribbles on a pad,
as he flies from Indiana to India.)

Begin again, say Ma kali; wear skulls
around your neck and chisel blue from your eyes when you're in India--
but not so much that you forget to take the skulls
off your neck when you board the plane back

to Indiana.

Begin again, say Ma.