Kate Partridge
Fall Line
We go down
to the river with sandwiches.
Simplicity economizes
time. On the rocks,
a man sits
with a woman. Dousing its face
in the water, a snake long enough
to arch over
his shoulder,
both ends extending to the ground.
It is difficult to see how such
differences can
be resolved
rationally. We move away
with others, lifting bottles and sacks,
one arm around
a child as,
in one last source of vagueness
and relativity, it becomes less
clear where beneath
the surface
the snake’s head is located. No
rock shadow across flank. Lovers of
one quality
frequently con-
demn the other. If an object
falls on one side of the line, it is
simple. Unlike
the jointed skull
submerged, watery. Speaking
communicates a commitment to
the utterance.
(includes language collaged from the New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics)
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Artwork on this page:
Detail of Farewell
20 x 26" oil on canvas, 2008
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri
Detail of Farewell
20 x 26" oil on canvas, 2008
Irene Hardwicke Olivieri