Absolute Variations by Wendy Xu | Poetry Magazine
11/19/23, 6:51 PM
Absolute Variations
BY W ENDY XU
The first time I read a line by John Ashbery
was in a little café in Massachusetts, from left to right
There it was written across my friend’s collarbone
It felt right to be there with someone
who would show me something like that
when we had never met before
In this country it feels insane to accept our facts
To idly and without remorse on a Tuesday remember
the meadow—if it’s still there—trumpeting its tendrils—
I wonder if that was a moral place—
if the meadow has only relationship to other objects—
without intention—without obfuscation from belief—the clot of orange
there along the innermost edge of vision—are tulips—
if I ever have the chance to get up close again—form is not all
there is—I wouldn’t allow it—thought bubbles fogging
up my screen—I remember my friend had a sort of ecstatic experience of pity there—
he had recently lost his belief
that he was doing the right thing—half frozen out of himself
with worry—evergreen in friendship—we watched the dogs
go round the loop—their tails like wheat—
they ran and bobbed in time—
nobody including myself could feed my friend
the correct answers—nor descend all the way there and back—
through reddish hell—just for him—
Source: Poetry (November 2023)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/161323/absolute-variations
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Absolute Variations by Wendy Xu | Poetry Magazine
11/19/23, 6:51 PM
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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/161323/absolute-variations
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