The Symbolists: Les fleurs du mal: organized by Nicole Kaack

the fragment held in the hand

conforms to the fragment holding

the fragment — the body fragment of hand

knows its part holding its part

and knows that part’s reason — is to be part 

fragment holding fragment

body holding earth — I saw people

they were all me I saw objects 

could not any be me I walked 

in my lower both — inside the removal

of not me I tried to live in both

— who is sacred to the word sacred —

exfoliate the alphabet fragment spoken

is word part — the fragment spoken

conforms to the fragment lived

— time holding both calendar and both

being us all the time inside our other us

is our living breathing both 

—Edwin Torres, To the Rendered Excision (from Xoeteox, Wave Books)

The object 

that looks nothing like me  

is the object that will probably kill me. 

The blood cell 

seeking the virus that looks nothing like the rest 

will surround and terminate the danger.

The invention — is in the danger.

creativity redefines danger as creativity

culture redefines creativity as danger

who redefines danger redefines culture

The story of the boy and the clock, the lesson of the teacher and the boy, 

the will of the boy and the world, the way of the world and the people, 

the question of the people and the wall, the falling of the wall and the people,

the power of the people and the tweet, the alignment of the tweet and the twit,

the addiction of the twit and the screen, the worry of the parent and the screen, 

the teaching of the planet and the dirt, the experiment of the flirt and the threat,

the melting of the climate and the neighbor, the color of the neighbor and the neighbor,

the construction of the ethos and the wave, the movement of the wave and the nation, 

the home of the brave and the free, the scripture of the key and the lock,

the threat of the clock and the wires, the pyres of the higher and the lower, 

the story of the globe and the boy, the freedom of the boy and the terror. 

who redefines danger — redefines culture

—Edwin Torres, Talisman  (from Xoeteox, Wave Books)