“An Archive of Confessions, A Genealogy of Confessions”
Now the summer air exerts its syrupy drag on the half-dark
City under the strict surveillance of quotation marks.
The citizens with their cockades and free will drift off
From the magnet of work to the terrible magnet of love.
In the far suburbs crenellated of Cartesian yards and gin
The tribe of mothers calls the tribe of children in
Across the bluing evening. It’s the hour things get
To be excellently pointless, like describing the alphabet.
Yikes. It’s fine to be here with you watching the great events
Without taking part, clinking our ice as they advance
Yet remain distant. Like the baker always about to understand
Idly sweeping up that he is the recurrence of Napoleon
In a baker’s life, always interrupted by the familiar notes
Of a childish song, “no more sleepy dreaming,” we float
Casually on the surface of the day, staring at the bottom,
Jotting in our daybooks, how beautiful, the armies of autumn.
Joshua Clover, “‘An Archive of Confessions, A Genealogy of Confessions’” from The Totality for Kids. Copyright © 2006 by Joshua Clover. Reprinted by permission of University of California Press.
Source: The Totality for Kids (University of California Press, 2006)