A dog of vast proportions is crossing the field of my mind
His forehead is marked with the same sign I am wearing on my neck
My feet sink deeper and deeper in the floor of the bookstore as I attempt to get out
The involuntary expression that crossed the barrier of my teeth
Is simultaneously pronounced by a girl whose path across the sky
Is intersected by mine eventually some time in the future
I am unable to repeat the word in question although I try again and again
Unless someone holds my left arm at a right angle
I am unable to move my left arm
Or keep a straight course from south to north using the stars as guides
They are keeping me half-submerged in a glass of water
They prevent me from crossing the critical point of no return
From crossing the water
From crossing myself in the street
From double-crossing myself From crossing my arms
The threshold of my mind is being crossed by a total stranger
He is wearing a mask and he holds a small quantity of brown sugar in his left hand Around his neck he is wearing an amulet
Which resembles the scar I have on my forehead
A kind of phosphorescent four-letter scar
Representing the word I was unable to pronounce
When I was attempting -desperately- to reach the door of the bookstore
(Pale fear gripping my neck with a hand of iron and noble thoughts crossing the threshold of my brain like a flock of geese)
His forehead is marked with the same indelible sign as mine is
Evil thoughts like a flock of geese penetrate beyond his forehead
He looks me straight in the eye
He fires – holding the gun in his pocket
The bullet penetrates my abdomen and I stumble
I fall across a dead body lying in the entrance of the bookstore
The dying rattle of a falling star (noble thoughts crossing the horizon like a flock of wild geese flying southward navigating by the stars on cloudless nights)
His forehead marked with the sign of the outstretched hand
A dog of vast proportions enters the cavity of my tooth

*From “Descriptive Poems” included in the book “Flash Bloom”, Wire Press, San Francisco, 1980.