After Louise Bourgeois’ “What Is the Shape of This Problem?”
What is the shape of this poem? If it contains some burning.
At the end of many red-orange threads there is a torment
I tug on in the hopes of beginning, and I start unraveling
the capillary action I’ll propel it with as you are picking
a light that will not guarantee. This is revenge you’ll resent,
although the hour to do so has ended. The clock is pushing
us forward into day’s lighting. Here and now I am finding
the sky is less filled with smoke, although the sun is in descent.
Somewhere or somewhere, the small hours are condensing.
***
Somewhere or somewhere, the small hours are condensing,
the sky is less filled with smoke, although the sun is in descent.
Us forward into day’s lighting: here and now I am finding,
although the hour to do so has ended, the clock is pushing
a light that will not guarantee. This is revenge you’ll resent,
the capillary action I’ll propel it with. As you are picking,
I tug on in the hopes of beginning, and I start unraveling.
At the end of many red-orange threads there is a torment.
What is the shape of this poem? If it contains some burning.
Sloane Scott is a sophomore majoring in English at Northwestern University. Her work has appeared in the international poetry journal SOFTBLOW and is forthcoming in the Hawai’i Review. She is never without her thesaurus.
