Noncings

The dead leaves that won’t admit they’re dead 
are called marcescent 
 

The dust & stray hairs 
stirred together by the air inside a violin 
is called a mouse 

A mouse is also called a mouse 
 

outside does not become inside 
inside a beaker  
            but instead 
when you come to bed with your shoes on 
 

It has been four years since I vowed to write a poem on every birthday 
but never did 
                        I’ve spent nearly ten 
            writing the perfect stanza 
to have a line about rhubarb 
 

The kerf is the width 
of the blade itself: 
            the distance between 
what is cut & what is cutting 
 

The spring buds on a pine tree  
are called candles 
 

I share the universe with massless particles: 
photons […] gravitons 

They’re there in their there 
 

“A lep is a ball” 
is an example of word replacement  
used on a memory test I still remember from 
            childhood Similarly
“A tay is a hammer” 

but plinko  
is the most popular game 
on The Price Is Right 
 

Can you believe Hamlet 
is such a failed piece of literature 
      it required Eliot to use a new 
            term for symbolism  

A profound misreading 
can lead to a moment of total clarity 
            likewise: 
the reverse