WHOLE PELICAN
WP—2
10–11–25
10–11–25
Occupation (Away)
by Chris Andrew
Philadelphia, Pennsylvannia
County Clare, Ireland
the ceiling of one’s own stead—
hanging over the work (the work being done)
in an age of emulation.
Our hands did some work here, do some work here,
fasting in the night and counting resources (in dreams).
The day is for grazing—
and lighted hours are persistent worship, disappearing time—
this is predetermined.
The feeling is mutual, at daybreak,
that between the Earth and the Sun
the only benefit of time is the occupation of our time:
the hard work of potato farmers
fading into the annals of domesticated crops.
What kind of record is kept
of the things our hands did,
do,
of the things so easily
gone missing,
of the feeling of being missed
and what misses us the most?
Here, in a profoundly moving place,
the sky is an interminable shade,
the ceiling of one’s own stead,
and our hands are signals
of countries that are absent of us, states we no longer occupy
(or that occupy us).
© Chris Andrew