Timothy Lavenz: Oath

intervention by Bacco Artolini on “Madonna dei pellegrini” Caravaggio ( 1604-1606)

OATH

Worked out hard

on glossy favor’s white rim,

 thought’s resolution-

pact draining pool of sense:

so loud the ether’s itch, louder

than primordial blank unmixed.

Huddling over it, spying

invisible fissures in it

consecrated and condensed:

immobily we fizzle, fiendish,

stirring up lonesome sounds in the still,

shut up in absolute proof

of listening’s comeuppance

undiluted

for reception’s matchless repute―

our co-alloyed axis-groove

sudden as freedom’s mark

in tumble-word’s eye-

magnified truce.

Elaborate then , stranger ,

on peaks of raining dust

this toxin’s grace, each oath

breaking

into naming’s resonance

best known seed and stay.