"Cursive" by Rae Armantrout

Cursive


In my country,
in "Toy Story,"

sanity meant keeping
a set distance

between one's role
as a figurine
and one's "self-image."

This gap
was where the soul
was thought to live.

*

When he thought of suicide, he thought,

"It ends here!"

and

"Let's do it!"

As if a flying leap
were a form of camaraderie.

As if a cop and his
comic relief partner
faced off
against moguls.

Crossed wires released such
hope-like sparks.

*

This thing was called
"face of the deep,"

this intractable blank
with its restless cursive.


Source of the text - Armantrout, Rae.  Next Life.  Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2007, pp. 22-23.

TJB: There is an oddness to the flowing, joined cursive motif in this wisp-lyric which employs so many metaphors of gaps, leaps, & abysses.