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Clay Matthews
Elegy for the Elbow Scab
I come to understand the consistency of asphalt
the same way the middle of the chest comes
to understand a scalpel, which is to say not at all
or with humble and eternal thanks. And since
it was da Vinci who invented the bicycle, or since
I’m going to say it was, on some mornings
we are geniuses each time we learn to pedal and remain
upright. You have two wheels and two bars and two
legs which is really what this is about: I am moving
and I am falling. A man down the street crashes
into a mailbox and this is beautiful you understand
only because the motors have slept in. When they awake
we shall have things to wail and moan about.
I can’t tell you what asphalt is but I can tell you it is
dark and consistent, and sometimes blurry in the distance.