Steven Schroeder | nothing but the presence
...just another part of the world, no more, no less.
-John Cage, Preface to "Lecture on the Weather"
settling into the gloom of another
mission accomplished moment on another
day of rain, two notes that have always sounded
to my ear like watch here drift in through the gray
from the other side of the glass. Watch here
could be the first licks on Stevie Ray's guitar,
and I can hear the whole song – watch here watch here
watch here look look look look look – see the flash of red
on the highest branch of the highest tree
and know it is still
a point at the center of a turning world
we strut into as if
we turned it
and all these deaths will be nothing
but the presence we posit to be silence.
What we can never bring ourselves to ask is
what we mean by we. It goes without saying,
and when we say only a god can save us
we mean (by god) no more than
the sound in our ears when we hear nothing
Chicago
19 May 2021
